Deceptive Natures
by frostykitten
Summary: "When you were sorted into Slytherin your dad was so worried that you were too sweet and those Slytherins would eat you alive. You're not who we think you are, are you? You're more act than anything else." Rose is a little more devious than she lets her family see, but this very deviousness is what the Aurors need when a group of new Death Eaters forms in the school.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**A/N: Hello readers! Usually when I write a story, the first few chapters come in a rush and then I slow down. This one was different. If usual inspiration comes in plot bunny form, this one came in an avalanche. I've written 20 000 words in three days and am currently finishing off this story on the last chapter. **

**It started as a little bit of a break from my sequel to The Case of the Creature Kidnappings (don't worry, I'm nearly done that) and clearly got out of hand. I'm going to post a chapter of this every few days because it would be a pain to keep everything straight with weeks in between chapters.**

**The usual disclaimer applies.**

**And now for something completely different... **

**~Frosty**

Rose stood on the landing above her family, watching through the banister with satisfaction as her plan came to fruition. Some part of her loved her family very much, but that part had been pushed aside by the rest of her that resented being pulled out of her comfortable bed, shoved into her father's stupid flying car, and driven off to the middle of nowhere to be crammed in an over-crowded house with all of her mental relatives. She would never seriously harm them, but she certainly wasn't above a few harmless mind games.

It happened in a flawless wave; she cast a quick spell in just the right place to trip Aunt Fleur as she wove through the crowd with a plate of potatoes destined for the table. Fleur tripped and the potatoes went flying, hitting her Uncle George right in the head. George, instead of turning to find out where the potatoes had come from, chose to instead lob a good glob of them at Ron's head, not pleased with his brother's hysterical laughter. From there, the room erupted into an epic food fight.

"If you used your powers for good instead of evil, you could have the highest grades in the school."

She turned her head from the chaos below, smiling at the one person who knew her well enough to recognise the trouble that was coming when she wore her put out expression and remove himself from the blast radius. Scorpius, just like Rose, didn't have a scrap of food on him.

"I already have grades in the top ten percent of our school," she said absently, ducking back as her mother glanced up towards the stairs suspiciously.

"I meant _without _bribing and blackmailing the teachers."

Rose smiled, showing all of her teeth. Most people shivered when she gave that smile, sensing that she was dangerous. Scorpius, however, just rolled his eyes and came to crouch beside her.

"Where's the fun in that?"

He chuckled as a levitating bowl of sour cream upended itself right on Hermione's head, distracting her from her suspicions. Rose slipped her wand back into her pocket.

"I'll never figure out how two war heroes managed to produce someone with so much darkness inside them."

"It's my dark side that attracted you in the first place."

Scorpius didn't disagree.

* * *

Rose could count on one hand the number of people who would stand there and bear the full brunt of her personality without running scared. If she was being truly honest, she could count those people on one finger. It was really just Scorpius.

Ever since their first year, Scorpius had been the kid who was usually standing off to the side, quietly minding his own business but still observing everything around him. Upon first meeting him, people usually assumed that he wasn't very smart because he never had much to contribute to a conversation, but Rose knew that this wasn't true. Just because he never voiced them didn't mean that Scorpius wasn't capable of intelligent thoughts. In fact, Rose was pretty sure Scorpius was a genius. She'd asked him once, but he had just raised his eyebrows mockingly and the subject was closed.

"You've got something planned," Scorpius observed quietly. There were rowdy children all around them in the corridor making their way outside on one of the first nice spring days of the year, and still Rose had no trouble hearing him. Maybe it was because he spoke so infrequently that it was like the universe quieted to listen in, or more likely it was that Rose was a little more in tune with him than she'd like to admit. Either way, she heard him loud and clear while pretending that she hadn't.

Scorpius wasn't fooled. Scorpius was never fooled.

Rose flashed him her best evil grin, ignoring the group of second year girls that scattered at just the sight of it. As they passed Victoria Lewis, a sixth year Ravenclaw that had been calling Rose a slag before break, Rose slipped a little package in the other girl's pocket.

"I saw that," Scorpius said out of the corner of his mouth. "Care to explain?"

"It's from her secret admirer, but she can't open it until next week or she'll get a nasty surprise."

"And what does it do when she opens it before it's time to?" It was almost guaranteed that Victoria was going to ignore the timeframe indicated on the package. The girl was known for her complete lack of patience. Her obsession with instant gratification was almost as well known as her skill on the Quidditch field. She was the Ravenclaw team's star chaser and took that role very seriously.

Rose smiled enigmatically. "It may explode, but I will neither confirm nor deny any involvement in the whole matter."

"Malfoy, Weasley," Professor Zabini called over the heads of the crowd, "A word."

Rose, being too short to see over many of the fourth years despite being in her seventh year, looked to Scorpius for direction. He was tall enough to see over almost all of their classmates. Smirking because he knew that she hated looking to him for help, Scorpius took her elbow and skillfully navigated thorough the crowd to where Blaise Zabini, head of Slytherin house, was waiting for them.

"Is there a problem, Professor?" Rose asked with the wide, innocent eyes she saved for manipulating authority figures.

Professor Zabini, having spent most of his life in the presence of master manipulators and having known Rose since she was a little first year with her first blackmail scheme, was not affected. "I'd like a word with the two of you, if you would follow me to my office."

Rose and Scorpius shared a confused expression. Scorpius rarely did anything wrong other than keep quiet about Rose's misdemeanours and Rose herself was rarely caught and had most of the school staff under her thumb for those rare occasions when she was caught. Neither of them could figure out why they would possibly be called to Professor Zabini's office.

As the one Professor that Rose respected too much to bribe or blackmail, there shouldn't be anything that Zabini would have on her. Rose actually did her work for his potions class, so _that _couldn't be why they were being called to his office. Maybe another student had complained about her? Rose would make sure whoever it was paid.

When Rose saw that it was her dad and uncle Harry that were waiting for her she stopped, nearly making Scorpius collide with her back. "Daddy?" she asked in the little girl voice that had Ron wrapped around her finger. "Have I done something wrong?"

She had, but nothing that her father should have found out about. Rose quickly went over everything she'd done in the past few months of school that could possibly have gotten her into trouble. Maybe this was about the food fight she'd caused over break? But that wouldn't call for two Aurors – and they seemed to be here in the capacity of Aurors, since they were in uniform.

Ron wrapped an arm around his daughter's thin shoulders and glared at the potions professor. "I thought you said you'd bring me someone who could help, not my innocent daughter. She couldn't hurt a fly and doesn't need to be involved in any of this."

Rose was intrigued but wasn't willing to ruin her father's impression of her just to satisfy her curiosity. She leant against her dad and looked to Scorpius, who read her message loud and clear.

"Perhaps we should hear what you have to say and decide for ourselves if we can be of use to you."

Taking her cue, Rose looked up at her father with adoring eyes. "I'd like to help if I could, Daddy."

Ron rubbed her arm. "I know you would, sweetheart, but this is too dangerous for someone as sweet as you. I don't want you involved with bad people."

It took all of Rose's willpower to keep up her innocently adoring expression when Scorpius snorted and she desperately wanted to glare at him. He was going to ruin the act she'd been building since before she could remember.

"Zabini knows his students, Ron," Harry intervened. "If he thinks Rose is best for the job, then we should listen. I don't like it either, but she's smart and she'll be well looked after inside the castle. At least we can be positive that she's a reliable informant."

"Wait a minute," Ron said suspiciously, his eyes narrowed towards Scorpius. "How do we know that the Malfoy boy's trustworthy?"

Scorpius wasn't thrown by the blatant accusation in the least. In fact, he had expected it.

"Rose," he said with a careless shrug.

That one word was more than enough. She had been his best friend since they'd started school, and he certainly wouldn't screw that up because some of his peers tried to pressure him into joining some group that was doomed to fail. Besides, both of his parents adored his scheming friend.

Harry accepted that answer. "We've received a few tips that have led us to believe a new generation of Death Eaters are trying to get organized. We need someone within the school to investigate.

"These are our current suspects," he said, laying out two pictures on Blaise's desk. One of them showed a heavily made up girl who was biting her lip seductively and coquettishly blinking bedroom eyes at the camera and the other showed a square-jawed boy who gave the camera a rude sign and then swaggered off out of the frame, clearly bored with them all. Hyacinth Goyle and Craig Nott.

Rose immediately ruled out Hy. The girl was devious, but in a harmless way. She was only concerned with sleeping with as many boys as possible. Going all blood supremacist would severely limit her pool of penises to choose from.

Craig was another story though. Rose had always seen him as a small time bully, enjoying picking on those who were smaller and weaker than himself. She wouldn't have thought him capable of organizing a wave of new Death Eaters within Hogwarts, but it wouldn't do to underestimate him.

"What we want you two to do is find out everything you can about this new order of Death Eaters."

"Rosie," Ron said, tightening his hold on his daughter as if just holding her tight enough could keep her from getting involved in something potentially dangerous, "Don't think you have to help us or anything. You're free to stay out of it. In fact, your mum and I would prefer if you just focused on your studies while you're here instead of potentially dangerous work for the Ministry."

Scorpius was looking at the pictures contemplatively and then turned his eyes to Rose. "I didn't have anything more interesting planned for our last year of school, did you?"

No, her plan would have been entertaining and they would have gone out with a bang, but it would have completely blown her cover as a good girl. This idea would allow her to use her skills while still keeping up her facade. It was perfect.

"I want to help, Daddy."

Ron sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't say that, but I should have known. You're a good girl, Rosie. Don't let those other Slytherins corrupt you."

Again, Scorpius had to fight to conceal his snort. He managed because he knew that Rose's retaliation should he be the one to ruin her good girl image would be swift and ruthless despite their long friendship.

"I'll do my very best, Daddy," she said with that worshipful smile she was so good at faking.

* * *

"I don't know whether to be awed or scared of that performance," Scorpius said later, when Ron and Harry had left. They were told to find as much information as they could on the suspects and report anything they found to Professor Zabini.

"I think it's about time you used your powers for good instead of terrorizing the staff," Professor Zabini said.

"Are these new Death Eater people really enough of a threat to involve the Aurors, Uncle Blaise?" Scorpius asked. Blaise really was his uncle; it wasn't just a nickname because the potions professor was his father's best friend. Shortly after Draco married Astoria, Blaise married her older sister, Daphne. They had a son together who was a year younger than Rose and Scorpius.

Blaise ran a hand through his hair. "I had heard mutterings of it, but I dismissed them – until something happened over break. Did either of you notice that the sixth year Hufflepuff Jade Day has been absent?"

Neither Rose nor Scorpius really bothered with the other students unless it involved a scheme of some sort.

"She was attacked while playing with friends and has been too afraid to return to school."

"Then we better get started on looking into this," Rose said with a suck up smile and fake concern that neither person in the room believed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**A/N: Hello readers! I told you this was going to be updated fast. These chapters are shorted than my usual, but you're going to get them quickly. For those of you who are wondering, this story is 12 chapters long.**

**Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! Special thanks to the anonymous guest who pointed out my little typo in the title...**

**~Frosty**

Rose had every intention of investigating the two people the Aurors had pinned as suspects for the new Death Eaters, but first, there was something that needed her attention more.

Professor Lockhart had given her a disappointing grade on her last paper and she needed to have a word with him about it. Scorpius preferred to get his good grades the old fashioned way by actually putting some thought into his assignments. He didn't interfere with her methods, but he usually preferred to go to class while she had her fun.

It was Lockhart's free period, so his classroom was empty. Rose walked to the front of the room, perched on his desk and crossed her legs, arranging her shortened uniform skirt so that nothing important was showing. After all, blackmail wouldn't really work if he only listened to half of her threats because he was distracted by a scrap of her panties showing. Rose wasn't careless like that.

"Miss Weasley? What are you doing here?" Lockhart asked when he saw her, paling a few shades. A private visit from Rose Weasley was never good.

Rose smiled a toothy smile that was all venom. "I think you've forgotten our little arrangement." She held up her paper that showed an E instead of the O she should have received, as per their agreement.

Ever since her parents' second year, Lockhart had been slowly recovering from the memory loss he'd given himself. Headmistress McGonagall had been a fan, so she'd given him a job as the charms professor when he'd finally recovered enough to be released. Rose knew his secret though.

"I thought you didn't want the headmistress to find out that you have holes in your memory?" It had been a good day when she'd overheard him muttering to himself about the gaps in his memory in an empty corridor a few weeks ago, so much better for blackmail than what she'd been using before to keep him in line. What had initially been a tenuous hold at best was now pretty much iron-clad.

"I-I don't," he said, steadily losing confidence until he was wringing his hands nervously.

Rose wasn't deceived. She knew he was still more than willing to alter her memory if he thought it would work, if he thought that he could catch her off guard to cast the spell. Her eyes never left him, always making sure that his hands were in front of him instead of drifting towards his wand.

"I'll fix the mark, change what it says in my book," he offered, somewhat desperately.

Rose smiled and hopped down from the desk. "I'm glad we could do business."

* * *

At lunch, she sat down beside Scorpius with a sigh.

"Since when does the prospect of extortion not put you in a good mood?" Scorpius asked with a frown. He knew very well where she'd just been. "Did Lockhart not agree to raise your grade?"

"No, he agreed." Her voice was lackluster and her eyes were without their usual malicious spark.

Not much of a talker, Scorpius quickly grew bored with guessing what was upsetting her and fell silent as he finished his lunch, sure that she would tell him when she was ready. He was onto his dessert before Rose spoke again.

"I'm starting to wonder if this whole Auror business is going to be too much. I enjoy manipulating people, but this is so serious, more like a job. I'm worried it's going to take all the fun out of it."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Nothing will take the fun out of blackmail."

She perked up a little.

"You're right. What was I thinking?" Rose fished the pictures out of her pocket and held them out to him. "Which one do you want to speak to?"

He shoved the pictures back towards her. "Neither. I have class and then I have a charms essay to write."

"I could just talk to Lockhart and have him-"

"No. I'm going to write my essay. Be careful while you ask questions. These people have already proven themselves to be dangerous."

Rose rolled her eyes at his concern, grabbing an apple to go. She made sure to flick her skirt at his as she stood, smirking when he just rolled his eyes. "I'm _always _careful."

* * *

It took Rose all of three seconds to figure out where Hy would be. There was a Slytherin Quidditch practice out on the pitch, and since the weather was starting to get warm, there was a good chance that they were practising without their shirts. Shirtless boys were Hy's type.

Hy smiled when Rose sat beside her in the stands, not from any genuine pleasure at seeing her though. It was more of a smile of obligation. Few people risked being on Rose's bad side.

"What brings you out here, Rose?" Hy asked, flipping her glossy brown hair over her shoulder in a way designed to catch attention. It worked. Rose watched as one of the chasers nearly collided with the middle ring. Both girls laughed, sharing a moment of camaraderie over the misfortune of the easily influenced.

"I can't just join you in appreciating the Quidditch players?"

Hy shook her head. "Everyone knows that you and Scorpius have a thing going."

"What are you talking about?" Rose was actually surprised. She and Scorpius had never been anything but platonic. Sure, they spent most of their time together, but it wouldn't do to have people think they were together. Certain types of manipulation required her to be seen as available, or at least for it to appear that she wasn't tied down in a serious relationship. Scorpius might not have a reputation for being someone big on talking, but something about his silent persona had people believing that he was dangerous – dangerous enough for some of Rose's schemes to collapse if people thought she was dating her blond friend.

"You're not with Scorpius? You two are always together and you're one of the few people he actually talks to. You've never noticed the way he looks at you?"

Rose was so surprised that she actually let it show on her face before she could stop the telling emotion. "Looks at me like what?"

"Like he can't understand why you're at his side, but he'd rather be with you than anywhere else." She sighed wistfully. "I wish someone would look at me like that."

Rose flirted with the idea of telling Hy that boys would think more of her if she didn't sleep with them before even knowing her name. This idea was quickly dismissed. She wanted Hy's cooperation and insulting her wasn't the way to get that.

"I'm sure you'll find someone like that one day," Rose said consolingly. She didn't bother to deny any further Hy's suspicions about Scorpius. Actions spoke much louder than words and too much denial would only make it look like she was hiding something.

Hy nodded her thanks for the kind words. "Now, let's get down to the real reason you're here. We both know that you're not really interested in watching the Quidditch players."

Much thought had gone into what she was going to say to Hy, what angle Rose was going to play. She wished that Scorpius wasn't so set on attending class so that she could have asked him what he thought of her ideas. It was always good to have a sounding board, and Scorpius was an exceptionally intelligent and intuitive one.

"Did you hear about the attack on Jade Day?" Rose asked.

Hy thought about it for a moment, not really taking her eyes off of the Quidditch players. "I may have heard something. What's in this for me?"

"You won't make an enemy of me," Rose said flatly. She knew what Hy was angling for, and Rose wasn't about to set Scorpius up with the girl he'd gone out of his way to avoid for years. Their parents were friends, so Scorpius had practically grown up with her, and mention of the girl never failed to make him shudder with revulsion. Hy seemed to take his avoidance of her as a personal challenge.

"Fine," Hy huffed, not interested in the battle of wills that they both knew she was going to lose. "I'm not involved with the blood supremacy nonsense, but there are a lot of fourth and fifth years that are obsessed with it. I can't name names though; I don't pay attention to boys under fifteen. You know that."

Rose nodded, she did know that. She also knew that Hy probably didn't have much information on trivial things like a Death Eater uprising when there were Quidditch players to ogle.

Speaking of Quidditch players...

While she was on the pitch, Rose decided to solve another problem that Hy had brought to her attention. She put her fingers in her mouth and blew an ear-splitting whistle that halted the practice completely. A crooked finger had the Quidditch captain, the keeper Noah Pick, landing in front of her and looking at her questioningly.

"Why are you interrupting my practice, Rose?" he demanded. Noah was a seventh year like her and Scorpius, but they didn't really interact regularly. That didn't mean that Rose lacked blackmail material on him.

"I need a favour." Best to try and get him on her side before she resorted to blackmail, there would be less hostility all around and she may have a greater need for that blackmail material at a later date. It would be a shame to waste it on something that he would probably do for close to free – few Slytherins did anything entirely for free, but she knew some simple ways to make it worth his while. And no, she didn't mean sexual favours. That was Hy's thing, not Rose's.

Noah was immediately suspicious. "What kind of favour?"

Hy was watching them with entirely too much curiosity, probably mentally recording everything they were saying to report back to her gossip mongering friends at a later date. Keeping that in mind, Rose leaned so close to Noah that her lips were practically touching his ear and his sweaty boy smell was nearly overwhelming.

"I need you to pretend to date me for a while."

That hadn't been what Noah was expecting, something he made clear by rearing back and staring at her in disbelief.

Rose rolled her eyes at his overreaction. It was a simple yes or no questions – and for his own good, he better choose yes because she had some dirt on him. He and Keegan Edwards, a Ravenclaw seventh year, had been caught together in a broom closet a few months ago. Rose had acquired the photographic evidence from a second year that had attempted to use it to get himself out of trouble when Rose caught the creep trying to take a picture up her skirt. It was a given that the second year had found himself suddenly transferring to Durmstrang when his father inexplicably lost his job. He'd suffered the consequences and Rose still got her photographic evidence.

"Well?" she said impatiently when he didn't answer. Really, it would benefit the both of them; Rose needed someone to stop people from thinking that she and Scorpius were an item and Noah wasn't ready for the school to know that he was gay.

Noah shrugged. "Works for me."

Excellent. Rose's plan was working out nicely.

Before Noah could fly back up to his team, she grabbed him by the back of the neck and kissed him long and hard to seal the deal.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**A/N: Next chapter!**

**Thanks to everyone who took the time to review and also to irianaceleste for betaing fast so that I could keep up my quick posting schedule! **

**~Frosty**

Scorpius was bent over his parchment in the library, scribbling away at his boring essay when Rose collapsed in a chair beside him. She purposely jostled his elbow a little bit, hoping to cause an ink blot or something. Scorpius was ready for it and lifted his quill from the paper before continuing to write as if nothing had happened.

"I've had a busy day," she announced. Scorpius ignored her, choosing to instead waste the time he could be spending on her to do his boring homework.

"Rose," called Albus from across the library, earning him several disapproving stares, including one from Scorpius. He didn't really get along with Scorpius, but the two boys tolerated each other on occasion for Rose's sake. "Were our dads here today?" Albus pulled up a chair beside his cousin without being invited, something that made Scorpius give an irritated grumble that Albus either didn't hear or chose to ignore.

It was impossible for Rose to hide her true nature from the cousins that were in school with her, so she didn't even bother with the facade she'd worn for her father and uncle.

"They just wanted to ask me something," she said dismissively, her tone clearly saying that the subject was dropped. The problem with family was that they tended to ignore such subtle clues.

"And they needed Scorpius as well?" He didn't even bother looking at Scorpius for an answer. Scorpius only spoke to people he liked and he didn't like Albus very much.

"It's none of your business."

Albus accepted that, not looking happy about it but knowing that he wasn't going to get anything else from her. Always full of energy, Albus had always struggled to stay on one topic. When there were things that Rose didn't want to speak about, this worked in her favour. Albus rarely pressed a subject that was closed because he'd usually already moved on to the next topic.

"Have you talked to Lily lately?" Albus asked, more subdued. "She's been a mess since the whole Christianson fiasco."

Rose knew all about what had happened, but she also knew that Lily would probably put a stop to her revenge plan if she found out about it.

Lily, as a general rule, disapproved of Rose's scheming, especially when said schemes interfered with her love life. In Rose's defense, it wasn't her fault that she had discovered that the man her younger cousin was in love with had been dating someone else the entire time he'd been dating Lily. All Rose had done was kissed Christianson in front of his girlfriend, Victoria Lewis, forcing the whole story out in the open.

Lily had been humiliated, but oddly grateful to her cousin, having worked out Rose's real intentions with the kiss. Still, Lily had approached Rose and told the other girl that she was not to interfere any further in her love life – namely by punishing Christianson any further.

Understandably, Rose hadn't listened to a word. Christianson needed to be punished for breaking Lily's heart.

"I'm handling it," Rose said with a dismissive hand wave that told him to move on to something else, the real reason he'd come to see her. Albus wasn't fooling anyone; they all knew that there was something else he wanted to ask her.

With a good natured nod, Albus moved on to another topic. "Then would you care to explain why you were snogging Noah Pick on the Quidditch pitch today?"

Both of them turned to Scorpius curiously as his quill scratched across his page, leaving a black slash across his essay and some of the table. He quickly grabbed his wand to clean up the ink and then glared at his audience until they went back to their conversation.

"He's my sort of boyfriend for the time being," Rose said, watching Scorpius out of the corner of her eyes. He wasn't usually one to have such physical reactions to even the most scandalous news, so Rose wasn't sure what his problem was. Maybe Hy was right and he cared about her more than he let on?

"How is he your 'sort of' boyfriend?" Albus asked disbelievingly.

She waved off his question. "That doesn't concern you. Now run along so Scorpius can get back to his essay."

Albus frowned at them, looking at lot like his mother in his disapproval, but he listened to her and made himself scarce. Not even Albus wanted to get on Rose's bad side. Family was certainly not exempt from her scheming.

"I know what you're planning," Scorpius said as soon as Albus was out of earshot.

"I should hope so. I would hate to think you actually believedthat Pick was my type." She looked at the smear of ink that was still marking the table in a small dent that he'd missed in his cleaning. "But you were surprised for a second there."

Scorpius just shook his head and went back to writing. She quickly got bored of watching him work.

"I'm going to go talk to Nott."

Fully giving her his attention for the first time since she'd sat down, Scorpius pointed the feather end of his quill at her. "Nott's dumb, but that doesn't mean he's not dangerous. It actually makes him more dangerous because he's too stupid to consider circumstances."

"I'll be careful, _mother_."

* * *

Nott was easy enough to find, Rose just had to go in the opposite direction of the fleeing first years.

"I think you should put the child down," she said conversationally as she came up behind her fellow Slytherin. Nott was like a tree in many ways. He was wide and strong with arms and legs that were almost impossibly thick. His neck was the same width as his head, giving him the impression of one solid piece. The comparison didn't end with his physique though; he also had the intelligence of a tree.

It took Nott a second to process that someone had spoken to him. When he did, he let the boy he'd been bullying escape and turned to see who had addressed him. His face was less than welcoming.

Rose had miscalculated. Once the child fled and they were alone, Nott didn't react as she'd thought he would.

She was good at blackmail, bribery, that sort of thing. Her spell work was above average, but physically, she wasn't very strong, especially against someone as used to physical intimidation as Nott was.

She had expected him to be easily cowed by her words, so when he grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the wall, she was completely unprepared. Words only worked if she was given time to voice them!

His hand tightened on her throat when she tried to subtly reach for her wand. Rose stilled, more scared than she had ever been before. She was used to being in control of a situation and this one had spiralled out of it so quickly that it had given her whiplash – unless that had been her collision with the wall.

Whichever scenario had caused it, the back of her head certainly ached from where it had bounced on the stone.

Her voice didn't work with such pressure on her neck, so she couldn't even try to bargain or threaten him. Hell, she couldn't even yell for help. It was just starting to sink in that while it was highly unlikely that Nott would actually kill here, there were a number of other horrible things that he could do.

"I hear you're asking questions that you shouldn't be, Weasley," Nott said, leaning down so that they were at the same level. "I'm being paid a substantial amount of money to keep you from sticking your nose where it doesn't belong." His fingers tightened some more, making darkness start to creep in at the edges of her vision. "I think a few weeks in the hospital should keep you out of the way for a while."

Nott's huge shoulders blocked the corridor from her view – and her vision was tunnelled besides - so she didn't see what happened next. All she knew was that she was pinned to the wall about to pass out and then she was on the floor, gasping for breath while needles of pain stabbed through her throat and head.

When she looked up, Scorpius was standing beside the crumpled form of Nott with his wand drawn and a murderous expression on his face. He looked prepared to continue cursing the larger boy, but Rose stopped him with a question, distracting him.

"What are you doing here?" she rasped. Oh, that hurt more than she expected. Apparently speaking was suddenly more painful that she was used to. Probably should have expected that, bruised throat and all.

Scorpius crouched down beside her after giving Nott a good heard kick to the ribs. "I finished my essay early and had a bad feeling." He pushed her hands away from her neck and gently ran his fingers over the bruises. "Did you want me to leave these or heal them?"

It was strange; Rose was trembling like a leaf in a windstorm. Her nerves never got the better of her but here she was, a complete wreck from a simple school bully. She hoped that Scorpius hadn't noticed but knew she was being overly optimistic. Scorpius noticed everything.

"Rose?" Starting to sound worried, he dipped his head to get a better look at her face.

She was thinking hard – possibly going into shock too, but her brain was still working overtime. Nott was going to pay for making her feel so helpless and she needed to think fast if everything was going to line up against him.

Taking her chin in his hand, Scorpius gently turned her head so that he could see into her eyes.

"Stop thinking so hard, you're going to hurt yourself. Let me handle this." He wrapped an arm under her knees and one around her back, lifting her into his arms. Most of the time Rose still thought of Scorpius as the scrawny, scarily smart little boy who had always seen through her acts, but it was times like these that she remembered that he was actually a strong, attractive young man.

"We're going to the Hospital Wing to get you looked at, then I'm going to send a Patronus to your uncle – I say him instead of your father because I suspect that Mr. Weasley would rip my throat out for letting you get hurt and _then _start asking questions." She chuckled weakly and nodded, which seemed to encourage Scorpius. "We're going to tell the truth – that Nott attacked you completely unprovoked and I pulled him off of you. If nothing else, we'll have an assault case and I'll personally make sure that he's expelled."

Merlin, did Rose ever love it when he talked devious. There was probably something wrong with her for being so attracted to him when he schemed, but she wasn't concerned with that at the moment. Rose leaned her head against Scorpius, suddenly immeasurably glad that he was there for her.

When he felt a wet spot on his shirt, Scorpius looked down at her, surprised. He smirked at what he found.

"Good idea, play up the whole victim thing. Crocodile tears always help earn extra sympathy."

It was Rose's turn to be surprised; she hadn't noticed that she'd been crying. She went as far as touching a hand to her face just to be absolutely positive that they were indeed tears. No genuine tears had fallen from her eyes since... she couldn't even remember the last time she'd actually cried.

* * *

"Look at her!" Ron shouted to Harry gesturing to the crying girl under his arm. As hard as Rose tried, she couldn't seem to stem her tears. "I knew this was a bad idea! Rosie isn't cut out for this kind of work. She's too honest."

Normally, Scorpius would have snorted and Rose would have been forced to glare at him subtly, but not this time. It had only taken Scorpius a few minutes after getting her to the Hospital Wing to realize that her tears were real. Her being in need of comfort was something unprecedented in their friendship, so he wasn't sure what to do. Rose had never seen him so out of sorts.

In the end, Scorpius seemed to decide on standing at her side until her father arrived and then let the one more competent in comforting handle the situation, still standing close. He had drifted away once her tears had slowed down, but he was still closer than he would normally stand in the presence of two family members. Except for a brief few minutes when Scorpius had taken Harry to show him where Nott was lying, that was where Scorpius had remained.

Nott was on a bed somewhere in the Hospital Wing as well, but it was well away from the one Rose occupied. She suspected this was more for his protection than hers. Scorpius had been right when he said that Nott was too stupid to think of consequences before he acted. It was her own fault that she hadn't listened.

"Ron," Harry said, used to reigning in his friend's temper when it got out of hand, "If Rose wants to stop then we'll find someone else, but if she doesn't, I'm not going to force her to."

This didn't have a calming effect on Ron in the least. In fact, Harry's words made his anger worse. "You're right, Harry. _You _aren't going to force her to do anything. I'm her father and I say that this is too dangerous."

Rose needed this discussion to stop before she was brought home and swaddled or something else completely ridiculous. Sure, she'd had a little bit of a scare, but she was perfectly fine. She just needed to make her dad see that.

"Daddy, I want to help," she said, sniffling as she tried to make her eyes into the usual adoring expression. Her tears were proving to be annoyingly persistent. "I'm fine, just a little bit shaken up. Besides, I have Scorpius to keep me safe."

Her words backfired more spectacularly than her Uncle Harry's had. Ron rounded on Scorpius, his expression dark and his fingers twitching with the desire to grab his wand.

"Where were you while this whole thing was happening?" he demanded. Rose suspected that the only reason he didn't have poor Scorpius by the collar was because Ron didn't want to take his arm from around her shoulders.

"I was in the library finishing an essay and then I was looking for Rose," Scorpius answered, not flinching in the face of Ron's anger. He was pretty unflappable generally, but in this instance, his coolness was admirable.

"Why were you letting her look into possible criminals alone?" Harry asked mildly.

Rose spoke up before Scorpius could defend himself.

"No," she said firmly in a tone that she had never used around her older relatives before. "Nothing about this is Scorpius' fault. He saved me before things got too out of hand and doesn't deserve to be attacked."

The room fell silent while everyone stared at her; Harry and her father in disbelief and Scorpius in exasperation.

"It's fine, Rose," Scorpius said, the first to break that slightly uncomfortable silence. "They're right. I should have been there when you went to speak to Nott."

"Like I would have let you," she answered with a roll of her eyes, forgetting that she was being a good girl for her dad and uncle. It was uncharacteristically careless of her, but she had recently been traumatised and wasn't in top deceptive form.

"Rosie?" Ron asked, sounding bewildered at her strange tone.

Scorpius and Rose exchanged a look. Shite.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**A/N: Hello readers! Next chapter! I was going to wait until tomorrow, but it was just sitting on my desktop, all betaed and everything! And you guys have been so kind with your reviews... So here it is!**

**As always, thanks to all of the lovely people who reviewed and to the (also lovely) irianaceleste for betaing.**

**Also, in answer to yay's question (the rest of you may have been wondering as well), Hermione has some suspicions about Rose, as I was trying to show in the opening scene. No one really knows everything that's going on with Rose (except Scorpius, of course), but no one else is as blind to everything as Ron. They have some suspicions while Ron just sees Rose as his innocent little girl.**

**~Frosty**

Rose blinked, her face taking on her customary innocent expression she wore around her father. She even managed some fake tears to cling to her lower lashes to give the illusion of dewy eyes.

"Sorry Daddy, I'm just a little rattled from the attack and I don't want you to blame Scorpius when he was the one who saved me." She turned falsely adoring eyes onto Scorpius, batting them at him when she saw a subtle shiver of horror go through him.

Ron, ever the doting father, soaked up every word like a cactus after a desert rain, but Harry looked slightly skeptical. His sharp eyes were watching her intently, trying to figure out which version of Rose was the real one.

Seeing this, Rose looked to Scorpius for assistance. The ever-helpful blond just raised an eyebrow, indicating that she got herself into the mess and she was going to have to be the one to get out of it again. So much for counting on him for assistance.

"I want to help," she said in a voice that was slightly less adoring, letting some of her natural tone come into her words. "I'm already invested in it and I'd like to follow through with what I've started." She turned back to her dad, widening her eyes again, "I promise not to talk to suspects alone again, okay, Daddy?"

Ron stared hard at Rose for a moment and then harder at Scorpius, who just nodded to show that he would make sure Rose didn't question anyone without an escort.

A commotion at the entrance to the Hospital Wing brought his examination to a halt as everyone turned to watch as Lockhart, ironically the current Head of Ravenclaw, levitated an unconscious and burned Victoria Lewis into the nearest empty bed.

Harry and Ron rushed over to see what had happened, both of them suspecting that Lockhart had done something horrible to Victoria while trying to "assist" with her injuries.

Scorpius took the opportunity to sidle closer to Rose. "Taking the star chaser out of the picture right before the big Slytherin verses Ravenclaw match?" he asked with a smirk. "How much do you have riding on the game?"

"A bit," Rose admitted as she watched Madam Pomfrey, really getting on in years, mutter about various potion regimens and what spells would work to best heal the girl. "I thought I'd take care of two things at once and win the bet while getting back at Lewis all in one go."

"Tidy," Scorpius agreed. "I doubt anyone's going to be calling you a slag anytime soon, though you could make it so much easier by keeping your tongue away from boyfriends."

Victoria's boyfriend had had the whole thing coming. When Rose found out that the idiot boy had been fooling around with her cousin Lily on the side, she'd been understandably furious. All Rose had really done – so far – was bring his infidelity to light. She had a bigger plan for Ivan Christianson.

Victoria and the exploding package that Rose had slipped her were really just collateral in the larger hole that Christianson had dug for himself.

"I have a boyfriend now, Scorpius. I've moved beyond those things."

He very briefly touched her elbow, his eyes soft. "I'm glad you're feeling more like yourself."

Rose tilted her head back and smiled up at him, his soft look fading quickly as he drew his hand away. Her dad and uncle were on their way back, so she returned to her sniffling.

"Was it this dangerous when we went to school here?" Ron asked, looking like he was on the verge of a cardiac event at the thought of his children attending such a dangerous school.

Harry looked at Ron in disbelief for a moment. "I nearly died every year, sometimes twice a year. You were right there with me for most of it."

"Everything seemed less... deadly when we were young."

"We have to be getting back to work," Harry said reluctantly, looking at his watch. They'd been at Hogwarts for quite a while and probably had paperwork of something to catch up on.

Ron looked down at Rose. "I don't like you doing this. It's dangerous."

She nodded, her expression all innocent resolution. "I'll be more careful. I want to help." Mostly because, despite the obvious consequences, she was having more fun than she'd had in a long time.

Ron turned his eyes to Scorpius. "If she gets hurt again, it's on your head. I'll come to find you."

"Of course." Scorpius nodded, entirely serious.

Harry put a comforting hand on Rose's shoulder as he walked past, Ron following after him.

Once they were gone, Rose leaned back on her bed and stared up at the ceiling while Scorpius watched what was happening on the other side of the Hospital Wing with interest. He slipped his hands in his pockets and leaned a hip against her bed.

Lewis had woken up and was screaming while Madame Pomfrey tried to administer pain relief potions. Like the gormless idiot he was, Lockhart didn't help, only fluttered around at the edge of the bed, suggesting things that even Rose knew wouldn't work.

"Are you almost ready to get out of here? It's getting a little noisy."

Imperiously, Rose held out a hand for Scorpius to help her up from the bed. She was in complete agreement.

Neither of them suspected Harry to be waiting for them on the other side of the door.

Seeing the strange look on the Auror's face, Scorpius murmured, "I'll see you back in the common room, Rose." It went unspoken that she better hurry or he'd come looking for her.

"Where's Daddy?" Rose asked, looking around for her father.

"I told him I forgot something and came back alone."

She waited, head tilted to the side in a silent question.

"When you were sorted into Slytherin," Harry said, still looking at her with a strange expression, "Your dad was so worried that you were too sweet and those Slytherins would eat you alive."

Not sure where this was going, Rose stayed quiet. She wasn't going to incriminate herself until she was sure about what her uncle was trying to say.

"You're not who we think you are, are you?" Harry finally said.

"What are you talking about, Uncle Harry?" She widened her eyes just a little bit extra. One could never look too innocent when it came to family in her opinion.

Harry pointed at her eyes. "That. That is exactly what I'm talking about. You're more act than anything else."

Okay, so maybe she had overdone the innocence thing a little bit. Uncle Harry wasn't as blinded by her big blue eyes as her dad was.

Sighing, she blinked the innocence from her eyes. "Don't tell my dad," she said quietly. "It would kill him."

"Whatever makes you think you have to pretend with your family, Rosie, you're wrong." He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We're your family. We love you no matter what."

In a rare show of affection, Rose hugged her uncle. "You're not mad at me for pretending?" she asked when she pulled away.

"Actually, I'm kind of relieved. The innocent Rose you pretend to be wouldn't stand a chance against Death Eaters in-training."

Rose smiled, the dangerous one that was all teeth. "Don't worry. I can take care of myself."

Harry's eyes widened slightly and then he chuckled. "I'm starting to think you can."

* * *

That night, while Scorpius finished the rest of his homework, Rose curled up beside him on the sofa with a quill and some parchment while she jotted down some notes. They had already cleared the only two suspects that the Ministry had provided for them (Hy was too into... getting to know new people and Nott was more interested in bullying first years), so she was going to have to do some digging of her own.

"What about Vaughn Bianci?" Rose asked thoughtfully, the feathered tip of her quill in her mouth as she subtly watched said boy across the room. He was a fifth year who had made it clear in the past that he refused to associate with Muggleborns and most half bloods.

Scorpius looked up from his homework, contemplated the fifth year for a moment, and then went right back to scratching away at his parchment. "Could be. I doubt it though; he spends most of his spare time pining after Hyacinth, has ever since she shagged him under the Quidditch stands four months ago."

Making note of this, Rose nodded, wondering how such a detail could have escaped her notice. Now that she was looking properly, she saw that Bianci's eyes were indeed riveted on Hy where she was holding court with her admirers across the room. It was a little scary how much Scorpius noticed even while his attention was focused elsewhere.

"Has it occurred to you that it's more than likely someone outside of Slytherin that's in charge of that merry band of ruffians?"

It had, but Rose tended to doubt the scheming abilities of people from houses other than Slytherin. A careful balance of cunning and ambition was required to be properly devious, and people with that particular balance of traits were almost always sorted into Slytherin.

Her quill went back into her mouth as she pondered this. Scorpius was right. She wracked her mind for anyone who had ever made a slur against her Muggleborn mother or expressed dislike for Muggleborns in general. She also made a list of those who had been much more subtle in their dislike of Muggleborns.

When she felt Scorpius' breath on her neck, she glanced at him over her shoulder as he read her list.

"That one's an interesting choice," he commented, pointing to a name towards the top of her list in the non-Slytherin column.

"There's always been something off about him. He's creepy."

* * *

"You're going to give yourself away if you keep staring like that," Scorpius said the next morning over breakfast.

Rose dragged her eyes away from Christianson and back to her food, which she poked at with her fork. "I'm trying to figure out the perfect way to destroy him. I need to study his every move, learn what's important to him, and then snatch it all out from under his feet."

"While I applaud the sentiment, you're a Slytherin and know how to be more subtle than glaring across the hall like a disgruntled fifth year."

"You're right," she said with a sigh. The whole incident with Nott must have shaken her up more than she'd thought if she was reverting to such juvenile tactics. She was thankful that Scorpius was there to keep her thinking like the Slytherin she was.

Gathering her plate, Rose picked it up and moved down the table, plonking herself down beside Hy. She gave the boys across the table a pointed look that had them both suddenly remembering something that they'd forgotten in their rooms.

"How are you today, Rose? I heard about that nasty business with Nott."

"It was a miscalculation that I handled," Rose said confidently.

And it _was _handled. Nott had been expelled from school, she was pressing charges against him, and with Scorpius' help, she had sabotaged the job he'd had lined up at his father's law office. The Malfoys were very influential people; all it had taken were a few letters with a good forgery of Draco Malfoy's signature and that law office was suddenly not willing to risk the bad press of hiring someone who tried to kill the daughter of two war heroes and friend of the Malfoy heir.

Hy nodded. "I heard about that as well. You've reaffirmed that you're not one to be crossed."

This was why Rose liked Hy, the girl knew how to respect a good scheme, even if she didn't usually bother with plots that ended in anything other than with tangled sheets and regret.

"You've got that look in your eye that says you're about to ask me to do something fun."

Rose smirked. "What do you know about Ivan Christianson?"

They both watched him get up and leave the Great Hall.

"I have a feeling," Hy said with an evil grin, "That I'm soon going to learn a lot more."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**A/N: Hello readers! I'm having a hell of a time trying to keep straight whether it's been one day or two since I've updated. I over-think it and confuse myself. Either way, here's chapter 5. We're almost halfway through!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**I'm forever forgetting the disclaimer, but you guys know the characters, etcetera don't belong to me, right? Just the story.**

**~Frosty**

"I need a favour," Rose said, looking uncomfortable enough that Scorpius knew she had a serious request.

He raised an eyebrow and waited for her to spit out what was making her so antsy. It was only a matter of time before she bubbled over like a cauldron left to boil for too long. Before she'd spent enough time getting up to temperature, Scorpius' attention was pulled elsewhere.

"Scorpius, can you help me with my essay?" asked an anxious-looking first year that Rose had long ago ruled out as too twitchy and nervous to ever attempt joining a group as anxiety-inducing as the Death Eaters. Besides, he was eleven.

Rose would have resented the interruption and glared the child away had she not been the one to set up his and Scorpius' tutoring arrangement. She'd needed a favour from the kid's – Rose could never remember his name – older brother, whose price had been tutoring for the kid when he needed it. Having not done any of her own work in years and not willing to waste time on a kid besides, Rose had quickly roped Scorpius into the deal.

In return, she owed Scorpius a chocolate frog every weekend for the rest of their lives.

"I'll talk to you later," Rose said, slipping away so that they could talk. Her favour wasn't something all that important anyway. It could wait.

She slipped from the Slytherin common room and out into the corridor of the dungeon. It had been a while since she'd updated Professor Zabini on everything she was doing. Rose just wasn't used to being responsible and letting an authority figure in on her schemes, not even an authority figure as tolerable as Professor Zabini. Reporting to him just didn't sit well with her, so she didn't do it as much as she probably should.

He was sitting behind his desk in the potions classroom marking assignments when Rose found him.

"What can I do for you, Miss Weasley?" He looked up when she didn't immediately speak. "If you're going to waffle about what to say, come and take a handful of these first year assignments and help me mark them – I'm warning you though, they're absolutely dreadful."

Accepting the offer, Rose took a stack of parchment and settled at a desk in the front row. She grimaced as soon as she saw how horrible the handwriting on the first assignment truly was. Zabini hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said they were dreadful.

He saw her expression and laughed. "I warned you. Best tell me what it is that's on your mind quickly and reduce your suffering."

Rose got through three assignments before she could no longer bear the obvious spelling and potion errors. She had a lot more respect for her professors now; any more poorly written assignments and she'd be obligated to hex the next first year she saw. It was a wonder that the professors weren't cursing students left and right. Really, she was doing them a favour by telling them the mark she was going to get before she turned in her work.

"Both of the Ministry's suspects were dead ends. I'm currently investigating a few other leads and thought that you'd like to know." She stood up and handed him the rest of her unmarked assignments as well as the few she'd managed to complete.

"I trust your judgement," Zabini said dismissively. He looked her over critically. "Are you okay after the incident with Nott? Astoria heard about it from Scorpius, and she and Daphne have been yelling at me for letting Aurors 'use you in their ridiculous games'. Neither of them want the little redhead that Scorpius is so taken with to get hurt in any way."

Rose ducked her head to hide a blush that had snuck up on her. It wasn't often that she actually blushed; she wasn't a bashful person by nature. Something about being held in high esteem by Astoria and Daphne, people who had admitted themselves that they trust few and liked fewer made her literally tickled pink.

* * *

Rose was a strong person with confidence in spades, but after her attack, she'd found herself uncomfortable being alone in the dungeon hallways. To experience fear while walking through a simple corridor was something completely unfamiliar to her. It made her angry – at herself and especially at Nott for assaulting her and shaking her confidence.

She was so lost in her anger at herself that she didn't notice the footsteps behind her until someone grabbed her arm.

With a scream that she would later be mortified by, Rose whipped around, her heart in her throat and her hand in her robes, fruitlessly scrabbling for her wand.

"Scorpius," she said, sagging against him in relief.

When she realized what she was doing, she pulled away and looked at him sternly. "You will never tell anyone that I did that."

"Rose," he said, her name a sigh, ignoring her scream and her order. His voice was perfectly calm, but there was a franticness in his eyes that said he'd been looking for her for long enough to be worried. "Where were you?"

"I was helping your uncle grade papers and filling him in on what I've been doing for the Aurors."

He looked her over for a second, his face accusing this time. "I promised your uncle and father that I would keep you safe. How am I supposed to do that if you insist on wandering around the dungeons late at night?"

It wasn't that late. It wasn't even past curfew yet. In fact, Rose was pretty sure that she'd walked past a few third years on their way back from the library not so long ago. She wasn't completely defenceless; Nott had just caught her by surprise.

"While I appreciate the thought," Rose said slowly, "I'm not going to get anything done if you follow me around like a guard dog."

The air went right out of him and he deflated, knowing that he wasn't going to defeat her in a battle of wills. Even if he had managed to cow her, Rose still wouldn't have stayed out of the corridors without an escort, she would have just snuck out, losing the benefit of having anyone know where she was.

"What was the favour you wanted from me?" he asked, resigned.

Instantly, Rose was shuffling her feet slightly, so uncomfortable with the topic that she was broadcasting obvious tells. She knew better, was better than that, but she wasn't used to being so damned _uncomfortable_. Telling herself to get it together, she made herself meet his steady gaze and still her bloody fidgeting. She knew Scorpius wasn't going to like her request, but she was pretty sure that he would relent in the end and agree with her. Had she expected it to be a waste of breath, she wouldn't have asked.

"Well?"

Rose was blushing again. Twice in one day had to be some sort of record. Scorpius just raised an eyebrow and waited for her to speak.

"I need you to do what Nott did to me." She held up a hand to stop his objections. "I want to be in a similar situation again. I think it'll show me that it wasn't as scary and I'm remembering it." When she turned her pleading eyes on him, it wasn't an attempt to manipulate him. That wouldn't work on Scorpius. She was genuinely pleading with him to do this for her. "If it's you, I'll know I'm safe even if I'm scared."

He stared at her so long that she was sure he was going to say no.

Rose was already readying her next arguments in her mind when he bowed his head and then met her eyes once more. "On one condition."

"Name it." Rose would do almost anything to lessen her likeness to an anxious eleven year old lost for the first time in the dungeons. She lived in the dungeons for Merlin's sake and had done so for six years! Twitchy first years stuck fear into the hearts of no one and being so like one of them made her ineffective at all of the things she liked best: intimidation, manipulation, extortion – the usual.

She had expected Scorpius to request something in return for his assistance; it would be un-Slytherin of him to do something for free. What surprised her – not that she showed it – was that Scorpius didn't even need a second to think on his request. He knew immediately what he wanted.

"You tell me when you're going to be wandering the corridors alone. Tell me where you're going and how long you expect it to take."

Not pleased, Rose pursed her lips. She supposed that this wasn't as bad as him demanding that she always have an escort when wandering the corridors, but she knew that she wasn't going to like having to report to him. It chafed on her overbearing nature.

"Fine."

Her fingers latched onto the sleeve of his robes and she tugged him after her. "We have to go back to where it happened. I need to relive it as close to the actual incident as possible."

Scorpius was doubtful of the entire thing; he made that abundantly clear, but he went along with it, following after her as she led him to the scene of her assault. If he noticed that her breathing increased minutely or that her grip on his sleeve became something close to clinging like a child seeking comfort from a security blanket, he didn't comment.

"What now?" he asked, looking down at her when they reached the site.

"You grab my throat and push me to the wall."

In all the years she had known him, Rose hadn't once seen Scorpius lash out physically. On very rare occasions he'd been known to use magic to defend himself, or more recently, her, but never with actual physical violence. He was devious and a powerful wizard, not a violent one.

"This is a stupid idea."

Rolling her eyes, Rose grabbed his hand and placed it against the exposed skin of her neck. Scorpius' long, graceful hands were a world away from the rough, stubby ones that had been around her neck last time. Still, her pulse sped up fractionally when he obliged her and gently curled his digits around the column of her throat.

"Now what?" Scorpius asked, noticing her small reaction and deferring to her for instruction. Rose was thankful that he was sharp enough to know she would be marginally more comfortable if she was calling all of the shots even while she played the victim.

"You push me against the wall."

He did it slowly, putting a gentle pressure on her collarbones to propel her back towards the wall. Her impact was nothing like it had been last time; this was really more of an encouraged lean compared to being slammed against the wall.

Scorpius watched her, the question in his eyes asking if he should continue.

Reliving this whole scene was and wasn't what she'd expected. Rose had anticipated the worrying flashbacks to the original crime and that Scorpius would be a whole lot less terrifying than Nott had been. What she hadn't planned on was enjoying the way Scorpius' fingers stroked absently in the hollow above her collarbone while he waited to see what his next move should be. He was really horrible at playing an aggressive bully.

When it became apparent that Rose didn't really have a plan, that she'd brought him there without any real idea of what they were going to do, Scorpius took matters into his own hands. He removed his hand from her throat and used his index finger to tilt up her chin so that she was looking right into his eyes. To an outside observer, they looked just like they were about to share a kiss.

Instead, Scorpius leaned down and placed a lingering kiss against her throat.

"There," he declared, stepping back in case she was going to hit him. There was embarrassment in his expression, but it was faint and Rose only saw it because she knew him so well.

"What was that?" Rose's own hand came up of its own volition to cover the spot where his lips had just been. It was an unconscious imitation of the positioning of Scorpius' hand a moment earlier.

"My mum used to do that when I was hurt. She said that kisses were magic. Of course, I always knew it was a bunch of rubbish, but it's just as likely a solution as your ridiculousness."

Now that Scorpius mentioned it, Rose did feel a little better. Maybe Astoria had been on to something with the magic kisses theory.

"Can we got back to the common room now, or would you also like me to hit you over the head with something to get past some childhood trauma? Perhaps I could shove you down a flight of stairs to relieve the embarrassment of falling down them in second year?"

Rose glared but led the way back to the common room. Walking through the corridors was much better this time around, though she wasn't sure if it was because her idea had worked or because of the comforting presence of Scorpius at her side.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**A/N: Hello readers! Daylight savings time is stupid and loud people in the morning are stupid. Here's a new chapter! Apple juice is good though...**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing.**

**To summerful21, it's 12 chapters long and I wanted it to be fast-moving. I'm hoping it works out to a relatively even pace.**

**~Frosty**

"Snuggle with me." It wasn't a request, it was an order, and Rose was used to her orders being obeyed.

"I would rather snuggle with a rabid hyena."

Rose allowed some menace to leak into the fake smile she'd been wearing for long enough that her cheeks were starting to hurt form the pretence. Her smile turned more genuine when Noah gave a little shiver of fear. He was so cute when he pretended that he had a choice in the matter.

With great reluctance in his movements but a smile on his face, Noah put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side.

It was one of the first truly nice days of the year and a Sunday to boot, so most of the school was out on the grounds enjoying the pleasant weather. Rose had decided to take advantage of the opportunity to be seen by having a little public snuggle by the lake with her fake boyfriend.

"How long am I going to have to keep up this charade?" Noah asked quietly after making sure that no one was within hearing distance. He had a healthy sense of self-preservation and wouldn't risk saying something that could ruin Rose's game if there was someone around to hear it.

Still, there were long distance eavesdropping spells as well as extendable ears available to anyone who wanted to know the secrets of their peers. Hiding the movement under what looked like an affectionate kiss on the cheek, Rose elbowed him.

"We keep it up until it's served its purpose," she hissed in his ear. "Now compliment me and be on your way. I have other things to do today."

"What lovely teeth you have," he said as Rose bared them at him in a frightening imitation of an affectionate smile. She pretended to giggle at what people were supposed to think was a compliment. Mentally, Rose noted that Noah had more spunk than she'd given him credit for. Maybe she could find a use for him in the future. Noah kissed her cheek and pulled away, making excuses about getting a last minute practice in before his game that afternoon before leaving her.

She stayed by the lake for a while with her face turned up to the sun. Normally, she wouldn't want to spend too much time in direct sunlight, what with her ivory complexion, but it was only early spring and the watery sunlight filtering down wasn't going to do her any harm as long as she didn't spend the whole day in it.

At the sound of footsteps, she cracked an eye open. "What brings you here, Hugo?"

As a rule, she and Hugo didn't interact much. She had used him as a scapegoat far too many times for them to be close while growing up, but they were a little closer when they were both at school together. In a castle with hundreds of other scapegoats for Rose to use, Hugo was just her little brother. Plus she made sure that the pair of older boys who had been making fun of Hugo back in his first year had come down with a nasty case of boils at the same time mysterious rumours about their complete lack of sexual prowess had popped up. The older boys had since graduated, but Rose had heard that they were still haunted by some of the rumours that she had started.

Hugo was never made fun of again after that incident, though the matter was certainly helped along when he'd sprouted up from the scrawny thing he'd been in first year and then started to develop impressively large shoulders for a fifth year. Her brother was going to be huge when he was fully grown, already cutting an impressive and sometimes intimidating figure.

"Lily wants you to stop whatever you're planning for Christianson." He had never been one for beating around the bush when just stating his mind saved him so much time. Seeing the uncomfortable angle Rose had to sit at to see him, with a hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun, Hugo plopped down onto the damp grass beside her.

"Why does Lily care what happens to him after what he did to her?" Christianson had led Lily along, dating her on the side without telling her that he had a girlfriend and then breaking her heart when Rose revealed his relationship. Things like that should not go unpunished in Rose's mind.

Hugo ruffled his hair irritably. "I don't know what's going through her mind. Maybe she still has feelings for him, or maybe she just doesn't want him completely destroyed like we all know he will be when you're through with him."

Her family knew her well – the younger generation of her family, anyway. "Whatever I've got planned for him – and I'm not confirming that there's anything – I'm not going to put a stop to it because Lily's still smitten. He deserves to pay for breaking her heart."

"I figured as much," Hugo said with a sigh.

They sat in companionable silence for a few moments before it occurred to Rose that her little brother might prove to be a valuable source of information.

"Hugo, if you had to pick, who in the school would you peg as a closet blood supremacist?"

He thought on it for a few moments, staring at a fluffy white cloud as it jauntily approached the sun. It was too filmy and thin to block out the sunlight properly, but it did dapple the grass with shadows. When the cloud had passed the sun, Hugo answered, "I reckon the Slytherin blood supremacists can probably find an audience to listen to their prejudices easily enough – no offence." Rose waved him off to say that none was taken. He was right; with the way a lot of Pureblood parents still thought, there were always children in Slytherin who grew up with the understanding that they were superior to Muggleborns, so there would always be someone willing to listen to an anti-Mudblood rant, even if just because it made them feel more at home.

"If I had to name someone," Hugo continued, "It would be Greg Reid. I never understood how he ended up in Hufflepuff; he's one of the least loyal people I know."

Rose nodded thoughtfully. Greg Reid was a fifth year like Hugo, so her brother probably had a few classes with him.

"What makes you think he may secretly be a blood supremacist?"

"A few things," Hugo stared off into space as he thought. "First, he always gets this weird look around me, like there's something he wants to say but knows will get him in trouble – and before you say it could just be that he doesn't like me, he does it to Henrietta as well. I've yet to see him make that face at any of my Pureblood friends though."

Henrietta was Hugo's girlfriend of two years. She was so petite that it was almost comical to watch her walk beside Hugo, but they complimented each other well and Rose thought they were adorable together. Henrietta was also a Muggleborn.

"Second, I've seen him bully the younger years when he thought that no one was looking, and third, he likes to curse the rats in the Transfiguration room. If that doesn't scream emotionally disturbed, I'm not sure what does."

"Thanks, Hugo."

They settled into a comfortable silence with Rose people watching and Hugo continuing to follow the path of clouds across the sky.

Scorpius joined them, nodding a greeting to Hugo and settling down beside Rose. Unlike with Albus, Scorpius actually got along with Hugo. Something about their quiet natures had bonded them.

"What's going on with Rose's fake boyfriend?" Hugo asked the blond.

Rose huffed in indignation, not happy that Hugo was speaking as if she wasn't there. If he had asked her, she probably wouldn't have given him the answer he was looking for, but Rose still didn't like him going around her and asking Scorpius. Had it been something that Hugo needed to know, she would have told him.

Reaching into his pocket, Scorpius handed Rose a folded piece of parchment while he answered Hugo. "Rose is distancing herself from me in the eyes of our classmates because she found out that most people think we're dating. She's angling to have me cast as the scorned lover because she wants me to be invited to join a new wave of Death Eaters who have gathered in the school and started attacking students."

If the paper had been intended as a distraction, it didn't work. Instead of reading it, Rose just glared at Scorpius while he spoke.

"Am I wrong?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, meeting her glare head-on with a placid look.

"No," she muttered, "But I don't think you should go around outing my plans like that."

"It's Hugo. He's not going to risk your safety by ruining your plans."

Hugo nodded. "He's right, Rose. I'm not going to tell anyone."

"There, see? Now read the paper I gave you."

Not pleased, Rose glared some more before she obeyed. Knowing that anyone watching would assume she and Scorpius were having a fight while her brother defended her, she couldn't be too angry with her friend.

The parchment was a letter. Its message was simple enough, but it made Rose smile.

_Scorpius,_

_While I support your cause of taking down Nott for what he did to Rose, I would appreciate a warning in the future if you plan to use my signature to influence a business of one of my former classmates. It's a nuisance to hear about the things I've written with no knowledge of having written anything of the sort._

_I'd sign this letter, but you've proven yourself to be more than adept at forgery._

Rose handed it back to Scorpius, laughing out loud at Mr. Malfoy's letter. She had always been a little jealous that Scorpius didn't have to pretend at all when he was with his family. They knew all about his deceptive ways – Hell, they'd _taught _him those deceptive ways and were proud of how well he'd learned them.

"Good luck, you two," Hugo said, not bothering to ask what was in the letter. They probably would have told him, but he knew that knowing would make him an accomplice and didn't want to take the risk. "And try not to get attacked again, Rose. Mum and Dad have been sending me letters telling me to keep an eye on you and it's starting to get annoying."

* * *

The stands were filled with shouting fans dressed in house colours. Since it was a Slytherin game and most of the school favoured Ravenclaw, only a quarter of the school was wearing green and silver in support of Slytherin house. Rose was right there in the stands with the rest of her classmates dressed in more green and silver than almost anyone.

"It's a little disturbing to see you showing so much school spirit," Scorpius muttered. He wasn't happy to be out in the cold, the pink tip of his nose poking out over his scarf while he rubbed his hands together for warmth.

Rose elbowed him. "As the girlfriend of the team captain, I'm obligated to do this. Besides, I've already told you that I have money on this game."

The crowd cheered as the teams flew out onto the pitch. Rose hid a satisfied smile behind her hand when she saw that Victoria Lewis was still out of the game. Her stand in was a little third year boy who looked like he was literally shaking in his leathers.

"Just how much money do you have riding on this game?" Scorpius asked.

"More than my parents would send me in two years for pocket money." It didn't sound all that impressive, but her mum sent her enough pocket money to buy several books a month with the assumption that Rose was as much of an avid reader as she was. Ron also sent her pocket money, enough to buy a wheelbarrow full of candy for every trip to Hogsmeade.

"Do you have a plan for this money or are you going to blow it all on something frivolous?"

Her response was stalled when the game started and Slytherin scored an early goal. Like the good fake girlfriend she was, Rose stood up and cheered just as loudly as she could. She had a decent set on lungs on her, so Scorpius was staring at her accusingly and rubbing the ear closest to her, probably trying to stop the ringing sound.

"I have an idea for half of it, the other half I'm going to invest. I'll need your help for that, of course."

Scorpius had quite the head for investing. In his fourth year, he'd taken a handful of pocket money and, over the course of the school year, made a series of clever investments. That little bit of pocket money quickly became more than the substantial trust fund that was waiting for him when he turned twenty one.

"Of course," he said.

They both turned their attention back to the game.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**A/N: Hello readers! It's a rainy Monday, so here's another chapter!**

**Thanks to everyone who took the time to review and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**To summerful21, I've played with the idea of a sequel, but I can't promise anything yet. I want a solid idea and at least the first chapter written before I'll say I write one. I'd hate to say there would be one and then not be able to write it. Sorry I misunderstood you.**

**~Frosty**

Rose was thoroughly bored and the Quidditch game was showing no signs of finishing. The warm weather from earlier had been blown away by a cold wind that had her shivering in her winter coat. She tried to subtly snuggle into Scorpius' side, but he looked at her with a raised eyebrow that said she couldn't cuddle with him at a Quidditch game while supposedly dating the captain of the Slytherin team.

Sighing, Rose put distance between them once more, hating that he was right.

When a wave of warmth washed over her, she looked over to see Scorpius' stupid eyebrow was once again raised. Sometimes she hated that she could so easily know what he was thinking. This time it was "Why didn't you think of that yourself, idiot?" Rose was so happy to be warm that she didn't even care what Scorpius thought of her intelligence at the moment.

Sighing in relief, she relaxed, having not noticed how tense and uncomfortable she'd become while shivering. Her smile of thanks was radiant, but Scorpius just tilted his head towards the field, reminding her that she needed to at least look like she was paying attention to the game.

"Remind me to never pretend date a Quidditch player again," she murmured.

Scorpius just smirked. Both of them knew that she'd date another Quidditch player in a second if she thought it would further a scheme.

When the game ended with Slytherin winning by a significant margin, Rose jumped to her feet and cheered with the rest of them, but not for the same reason. Scorpius' knowing grin said that he understood she was only cheering because the game was over and she got to go into the warm castle.

"Shouldn't you go congratulate your boyfriend?" Scorpius asked.

Rose wrinkled her face up in distaste but peeled off from the crowd heading back towards the castle and made her way over to the Slytherin change rooms, where she knew the team was going to go after their victory lap. As she got farther and farther away from Scorpius, the warming spell he'd cast on her weakened and the cold wind started clawing at her hair and clothes.

Crossing her arms, she leaned against the change room wall, watching the victorious expressions of the Slytherin team. She was just starting to contemplate casting a warming spell of her own when they landed and she dismissed the idea. She'd be inside in a few minutes and the warming spell would be a waste of energy.

Allowing herself to smile hugely and knowing that no one but Scorpius knew the smile was because she'd won a significant chunk of money, Rose flung herself at Noah and kissed him. Playing his part, he swung her around in a circle, laughing. Unlike Rose, his elation over their house victory was actually because of their house victory.

"Congratulations," she said, still smiling.

Noah seemed to appreciate the sentiment. He led her away from the team so that they wouldn't hear his next words. "Am I still allowed to date on the side?" he asked quietly.

"I don't see why not, just keep it discrete."

"I don't want people finding out my preferences, that's the whole point of this charade. Why would I put all of our hard work to waste?"

* * *

When Rose found Scorpius, he was in an uncharacteristic fit of temper. He was glaring at anyone who dared venture too close and almost snapped at Rose when she laid a hand on his shoulder. Seeing that it was her, he relaxed slightly, still looking annoyed.

"What's crawled up your arse?" she asked, sitting beside him.

"I have detention."

Rose was so surprised that she actually let it show. While he was almost as devious as she was, Scorpius rarely used his plotting muscles and when he did, he never got caught. In the eyes of most of the teachers, he was an ideal student with an unfortunate choice in friends. What they couldn't see was that Scorpius was an ideal student for the good of everyone. He had issues with authority that only surfaced when said authority was exerted over him, so he kept himself in line to avoid having to act out. Things rarely ended well for the objects of Scorpius' ire when he lost his temper.

"What in the world did you do to get detention?"

"Remember Phoebe Clark?"

Rose nodded. Last year, Phoebe Clark had been completely obsessed with Scorpius. She'd followed him around, slipped love letters into his schoolbooks, and tried to pour a love potion into his pumpkin juice on more than one occasion. Rose had wanted to handle the situation, but Scorpius insisted that Phoebe was just a fourth year with a crush and tried to let her down gently.

"She told Professor Griffiths that I cornered her and sexually assaulted her," he said through gritted teeth.

It was a ridiculous notion that Scorpius would force himself on anyone. Rose would have laughed if she hadn't been so angry on his behalf.

"Professor Griffiths didn't believe you when you said you didn't do it?"

"Nope. He's always hated me. He didn't even listen when I started to deny it, just held up a hand and said that he'd be looking into the matter and I'd be lucky if I wasn't expelled for this."

Professor Griffiths was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had taken over the position after the last person to hold the post had retired in Rose's first year. As far as Rose was concerned, he was a decent teacher, he gave her good grades and in exchange, she had her famous parents invite him over for dinner from time to time.

With black hair perpetually in a ponytail, a muscular physique and only thirty five, he was popular among the girls but known for being unfairly hard on the boys.

"I leave you alone for ten minutes and this is what happens."

Scorpius was too upset to even snicker at her comment.

"Do you want me to handle this?" she asked quietly, bumping him with her hip. It was weird to have him in such a mood and she didn't like it at all.

"No, I'll deal with it."

* * *

"Where are you going?" Scorpius asked that night, his eyes sliding down, pausing briefly on her ruby lips before continuing to take in the rest of her. "And wearing your best push-up bra too. I assume I'm correct in thinking that this outfit isn't for that boyfriend of yours? It would be a shame to waste it on him."

Rose considered scolding him for the blatant perusal of her form but decided that it was a wasted effort. He was still going to do that exact same thing if presented with the same situation in the future, and it was not like she minded. Really, it would be a wasted effort.

"No, this isn't for Noah." She hated that she'd made the deal with him to tell him where she was going. Sometimes it was embarrassing to watch Scorpius raise an eyebrow, silently letting her know how ridiculous she was being. Her idea to have Scorpius re-enact her assault had helped her a little with her fear when alone in the corridors though, so she supposed it had been worth it. "I'm going to Gryffindor tower to pay Howell Hughes a visit."

Howell was the one on her list of suspects that Scorpius had thought interesting. He was friends with Albus but had always been inexplicably cold towards Rose. It was a long shot to think that he disliked her because her mom was Muggleborn, especially when Albus' grandmother had been a Muggleborn, but something was off about Hughes, and Rose intended to find out what it was.

"Is Albus going to be there?"

Rose wrinkled her nose. "I hope not, that would just be uncomfortable."

"Rose..."

"Fine," she sighed, "I'll make sure that we don't go too far from the Gryffindor common room."

* * *

"Oh Merlin," Albus groaned when she saw what she was wearing. "Please tell me you're not here to see one of my friends." He looked ready to slam the portrait in her face.

"Just send Hughes out to talk to me," she said impatiently.

"You don't wear that lipstick to talk to people. It doesn't exactly scream 'let's have a meaningful conversation.'"

"Just send him out here," Rose ordered. She knew that Albus would stall her for as long as he possibly could in hopes that she would get bored and give up on whatever she planned for his friend. Poor, optimistic boy.

Albus relented and started to go inside the common room, but he popped back almost instantly. "Just go easy on him, Rose. He's been in a bit of a mood for a few weeks and doesn't need you piling shite on top of him or whatever you have planned."

"You know I wouldn't be screwing with your friends without reason."

He didn't look pleased about it, but Albus sighed and went back into the Gryffindor common room. Hughes emerged a moment later.

"What do you want, Weasley?" he asked, sounding irritated until he got a good look at her.

Rose watched in satisfaction as a spark of interest grew in his eyes. Her favourite push up bra was a force to be reckoned with. Stretching her mouth into her toothy smile, Rose grabbed his hand and led him to a nook just a few feet away from the portrait of the Fat Lady. She figured that it was close enough to satisfy Scorpius and his worrywart tendencies.

Logically, if Hughes was repulsed by her, then he wouldn't want to touch her – that or he wouldn't respect her enough as a person to see her as anything other than a warm body. Okay, so it wasn't the most well thought-out plan, but he would probably be more willing to talk to her after snogging. There was no need for complicated scheming when a simple approach would work just as effectively.

Hughes didn't object as she pushed his back towards the wall and wrapped her arms around his neck, making sure that her chest pressed against his provocatively.

He may not like her as a person, but it very quickly became clear that he had no objections to her body. With very little provocation on her part, Hughes leaned down and stuck his tongue in her mouth.

"Rose, what in the world are you doing?" a voice asked not too long after Rose dragged Hughes into the alcove.

Sighing, she pulled away from the Gryffindor. He looked a little dazed, blinking at her lustfully. Rose had to admit that snogging him was much better than her homosexual fake boyfriend, probably because Noah was never properly enthusiastic.

"Give me five minutes," Rose murmured over her shoulder, waving the person away.

Once they were alone once more, Rose devoted her full attention to the Gryffindor. Her lipstick was smeared on his face as he watched her, waiting to see what she wanted. She hadn't really answered him when he'd asked.

"I need your help," she said, wiping her hand around her lips to make sure that her lipstick wasn't all smeared like it was on Hughes.

"With what?" He was suspicious, but hadn't immediately refused, which was a good sign.

"It's Scorpius," she said, putting vulnerability in her voice. "He's always said degrading things about me because my mum's Muggleborn, but now that I have a boyfriend he's starting to get out of hand."

"What do you want me to do?"

Years of faking tears to manipulate her dad came in handy when she managed to make her eyes dewy while she pretended to sniffle a little – not too much though, she didn't want to put him off.

"Maybe you could just threaten him a little? He's not very brave when he's facing people his own size."

Hughes thought about it, pretending to stare off in the distance, but really, he was looking at her cleavage that several undone buttons of her shirt revealed. In the end, he was unable to resist feeling superior while agreeing to assist the quivering female begging for help.

"Fine, but you owe me." Since he said this to her breasts, she had a pretty good idea what he would ask for in return.

"Of course," she said with her adoring smile. If he wasn't such an arse, she may have almost felt bad for leading him on and not pointing out the lipstick all over his face. Almost.

Hughes went back into the Gryffindor common room and Rose looked around for Lily, the person who had very nearly ruined her plan. She found her cousin leaning against the wall a little down the corridor, looking very displeased.

"What did you need, Lily?" Rose asked as she did up her buttons and straightened her hair.

Lily looked her up and down, distaste clear on her face. While Rose got on well enough with Albus and James, Lily had always been a little too uptight and prissy to get along well with her morally flexible cousin. This didn't mean that they didn't love each other, it just meant that they preferred not to associate with each other.

"Does your boyfriend know you're snogging Gryffindors?" Lily asked. She was at her most disapproving.

"If I were going to settle down, do you really think it would be with Noah?" Rose was actually a little surprised that Lily hadn't immediately suspected that something was strange about her sudden relationship with Noah. She had thought her cousin knew her better than that.

"I was talking about Scorpius."

Apparently Lily _did _know her better than that but not well enough to understand that she wasn't dating Scorpius. Rose decided not to have that particular argument.

"Scorpius knows where I am and what I was doing." She looked down at her outfit. "He's just glad I'm not wasting my best push-up bra on my fake boyfriend."

She tried to hide it, but Lily was a little amused under all of her disapproval, Rose could tell. "You two have a twisted relationship."

Rose shrugged; she didn't want to have that argument with her cousin either. As far as Rose was concerned, her relationship with Scorpius was perfectly normal. Besides that, it wasn't any of Lily's business anyway.

"What did you want, Lily?" she asked. Rose would only bear Lily's holier-than-though attitude for so long before she needed to escape. She refused to subject herself to her cousin when Lily was in this mood.

Lily wasn't thrown in the least by the sudden subject change. "Whatever you're planning for Ivan, I want you to stop."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't." Lily rolled her eyes. "I know how you operate and I know you're planning something. I was an idiot for trusting him, but you destroying him will only remind everyone of the whole incident all over again."

Patiently, Rose waited while Lily did her Gryffindor thing. Rose was even kind enough to wait a little longer once her cousin stopped talking, just to make sure that Lily didn't have anything else to say.

"Is your conscience satisfied?"

"Rose, that isn't why I'm saying-"

"Sure it isn't." Rose rolled her eyes as she walked away. Maybe if Lily hadn't looked so startled and guilty when Rose accused her of just clearing her conscience, Rose would have believed her. Maybe.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**A/N: Hello readers! I woke up this morning and it was snowing. Again. *sigh***

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing! **

**~Frosty**

Eoin Quinn, a seventh year Gryffindor with an unruly mop of brown hair, an Irish accent, and a big mouth that frequently got him in trouble, was the bookie of the school. He collected bets on a number of things. Rose knew that the odds were slightly skewed in his favour, that he was skimming off of the top for personal gain, but even with her losses to the house she stood to gain a substantial amount of money.

He grinned when he saw her coming. "Rose Weasley, you're one lucky girl."

"You're smarter than that, Quinn," she said with a devious smile. He wasn't foolish enough to think that her winnings had been purely luck, but he also wasn't foolish enough to deny Rose her winnings just because he suspected that she'd cheated.

"That I am." He grinned roguishly at her, fishing around in his backpack before pulling out a large bag of galleons. She peeked inside just to make sure that it was all there.

It was.

"Lovely doing business with you," she said, smiling.

"Wait a second." Eoin grabbed her arm as she was in the process of turning away from him.

Not appreciating being grabbed, Rose jerked her arm out of his grasp and glared, suddenly less amicable. "What?"

"I heard that you were asking favours of Hughes. He's a dangerous bloke, Weasley. You should be careful."

Rose was kind of touched by his concern, but she was more than capable of taking care of herself. Still, it would be a shame to forgo this chance to gain some new information.

"Care to tell me _how _he's dangerous?"

The affable Eoin was suddenly serious. "I know when to keep my mouth shut. Just be careful. Slippery Slytherin that you are, I still like you, and it would be a shame for you to get tangled with Hughes and his lot."

Interesting. Collecting her earnings was turning out to be surprisingly informative.

"Am I correct in assuming that you're not going to tell me who his lot are?"

His grin was back, but it was as fake as Rose's usually was. "You are indeed correct."

"Don't worry, Quinn, I'm always careful."

Rose shrunk the bag of coins and stashed it in her robes. It was time to put the next phase of her plan into effect.

* * *

At lunch, Rose sat down beside Hy instead of taking her usual seat by Scorpius.

"What have you learned?" Rose asked quietly.

Hy smiled. "It's never 'How have you been, Hy?' You're the best female friend I have – mostly because all the other girls hate me for sleeping with their boyfriends – but we never _talk _about anything."

This certainly wasn't the direction that Rose had thought their conversation was going to take. She thought about suggesting that Hy stop sleeping with boys who were taken, but that would be like asking a leopard to change its spots.

"Is there something particular you wanted to discuss?" Rose asked uncomfortably.

"Not really. I just wanted to put the 'friends' thing out there – we are friends, aren't we?"

Rose contemplated it for a few minutes. Hy really was one of the few people she could actually talk to. Other than Scorpius, she supposed that Hy was one of the least annoying people in the school.

"Sure."

"Good!" Hy said with a radiant smile that made a fourth year across the hall stumble as he tried to find his seat. "And don't worry, I've given up on Scorpius. I wouldn't want to risk our friendship." Scorpius would certainly be relieved to hear that, which was exactly why Rose wasn't going to tell him. Let him avoid Hy like the plague for a little longer, it was fun to watch him squirm.

This conversation was completely baffling to Rose. Most people wanted to get out of her presence as quickly as possible because they instinctually knew that the farther away from her they could get, the safer they would be. Hy seemed immune to such instincts. It almost seemed like Hy _wanted _her company. It was strange.

Rose decided to let the implication that Scorpius was hers drop and move the topic back to familiar ground. "Sure. So what did you learn?"

Leaning her elbow on the table, Hy rested her chin on her hand, sounding bored as she recited facts about Christianson. "First of all, he's all talk and has nothing to show for it. His penis is miniscule – and he's not the type that can make a little go a long way if you know what I mean."

Rose wished she didn't. "Can we move on to psychological weaknesses instead of physical ones?"

"You're no fun," Hy mumbled. She looked even more bored, rolling her eyes to the ceiling before reciting, "That boy has an unhealthy obsession with his owl. It's a great horned owl – apparently the only student owned one here at Hogwarts – and he goes to the Owlry every day to give it treats. Honestly, I think he needs to bribe the thing to like him, but that's just my opinion."

"Anything else?"

"He's a mummy's boy. He mentioned her constantly and seems to think very highly of her. She's pretty high up at the Ministry. Oh! And he's always whistling that Celestina Warbeck song, the one that plays at every wedding ever."

A plan was already forming in Rose's mind. "Thanks, Hy."

She left her friend there, thinking up a good revenge scheme as she walked down the Slytherin table to sit down beside Scorpius.

The blond took one look at her expression and groaned quietly. "What are you planning?"

"I'm sorry in advance," she said.

Scorpius almost immediately regretted not pressing to find out what she was planning.

Pushing herself up from the table, Rose slapped Scorpius across the face, forcing tears into her eyes. "If you really think that I'm a blood traitor, then I guess we're not friends anymore!" she yelled, loud enough that it carried across the hall and stopped the conversations of the few people who hadn't noticed that she'd just slapped Scorpius.

Her little scene finished, Rose ran from the Great Hall, pretending that she was fleeing so that no one would see her tears. In reality she had to put a hand over her mouth to cover her snickers at Scorpius' shocked expression. He was going to be so mad at her.

Tucking herself behind a conveniently placed suit of armour, Rose settled in to wait.

She didn't have to wait long; Scorpius came storming out of the Great Hall only moments after she stashed herself behind the armour. One of his cheeks sported a red glow where her hand had collided with it. Rose felt a twinge of guilt when she saw it; she hadn't meant to hit him quite so hard. She'd been caught up in the moment and focused on making it look real. Apparently it had been a little too real.

Sharp eyes scanning the corridors, Scorpius found her in a matter of seconds and strode over to her hiding place. Rose wasn't sure how much was genuine anger and how much was acting for the eyes that were surely prying into their business when he grabbed her arm, yanked her out from behind the statue, and pulled her towards the Slytherin common room.

Since everyone was at dinner, it was just Rose and Scorpius when he released his grip on her wrist and crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation.

"People need to think that we're no longer friends," she said simply.

"Is that all?" His tone was a biting one that he rarely used when addressing her. Rose cringed a little under his irritated stare. She wasn't used to Scorpius being angry with her, even when she was way out of line. It was unpleasant.

But she wasn't going to cower.

Keeping her eyes on his the entire time, Rose closed the distance between them and slowly put a hand on his jaw just under the pink mark from her slap. Pliant, he allowed her to pull him down to eye level.

Rose pressed her lips against the warm spot on his cheek, holding them there for a long moment before pulling away and smiling. "Kisses are magic, right?"

It was reluctant and very small, but there was a definite smile on Scorpius' face. "Any other surprises you have for my up those devious sleeves of yours?"

He had to ruin the moment.

Rose fished around in her pocket until she found the shrunken bag of gold and handed it to him. "Invest this for me?" She waited until Scorpius nodded curtly and tucked it away in his own pocket for revealing her next little bomb. "Oh, and if I'm wrong about Hughes, he may come looking to hurt you because he's under the impression that you've been verbally abusing me about my mum being Muggleborn."

Grinning evilly, Rose fled before he could get angry about her getting him so involved in her schemes without telling him.

* * *

Hugo had suggested that Greg Reid could be a blood supremacist and Rose trusted her brother's judgement. The kid had good instincts – at least that's what Uncle Harry had said when they were younger.

Stalking people wasn't usually something she did, mostly because there were always younger students to intimidate into doing the work for her, but for this case with the Aurors Rose was willing to bend her rules and do some dirty work.

Greg Reid, she decided, certainly _looked _evil. He had hair so short that it was only a dark peach fuzz on his scalp and his facial structure was all sharp angles. Even his eyebrows seemed to be perpetually set in angry lines.

For as long as she'd been watching him, Reid hadn't done anything interesting, and Rose had been following him for the better part of the afternoon. She was starting to think of giving up and making her trip to the Owlry when something interesting _finally _happened.

Howell Hughes and Luciano Zabini approached Reid, who had so far spent a few hours playing Exploding Snap and throwing balls of parchment on unsuspecting students walking under the landing he was occupying. It seemed that he'd just been waiting for his friends to arrive.

After glancing around to make sure that they were alone in the corridor they continued on their way. Rose shook her head at their idiocy. They should have at least cast a spell to make sure they were truly alone if they were going to be up to no good. Of course, it was possible that they really weren't up to anything at all, but she somehow doubted that. It was their shifty looks that gave them away. These boys were not used to worrying about getting caught.

Oddly enough, it wasn't to the dungeons or an abandoned classroom that the boys chose for their troublemaking, it was the Charms classroom.

Eyebrows drawn together in confusion, Rose crept up to the door and pressed her ear against it. The boys were careless enough that they hadn't bothered with a silencing spell, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. She definitely heard Lockhart's voice though. Was he involved in whatever those boys were up to?

There were a pair of Extendable Ears in her pocket – a vintage Weasley Wizard Wheezes product, from before they were outlawed for causing too much trouble. Rose had always suspected that the real reason behind the ban was her mum. Hermione Weasley had found the Extendable Ears poking into the kitchen at the Burrow while the women were talking. She eventually blew up and had a law passed to make them illegal. That way, Harry and Ron, as Aurors, were obligated to confiscate and destroy them if they found them during family gatherings.

Not all of Rose's deviousness had come out of nowhere.

She tried to poke one of her Extendable Ears under the door, but a silencing spell was cast before she could hear anything of use. At least one of them was actually thinking, which was going to make her job more difficult. She settled down in the corridor to wait.

Almost an hour later, Rose stumbled back and managed to hide herself just as the boys exited the room. They looked even shiftier than they had when entering the classroom. She was almost positive that they were up to no good. It was practically written across their faces.

Rose waited until they had disappeared before slipping into the classroom. She found Professor Lockhart with his head in his elbows resting on his desk and his head in his hands. The man looked older than she had ever remembered seeing him.

"Professor?" she asked hesitantly, hovering in the doorway in case she needed to leave in a hurry.

At the sound of her voice, he started so badly that he nearly fell right off his chair.

"Miss Weasley, are you here to threaten me again? I believe you received an O on your last assignment."

"No, no threats. I was just looking for someone. Have you seen Professor Zabini's son? He was looking for him."

The confusion that wrinkled Lockhart's face was genuine. "Why in the world would I have seen the Zabini boy? He was in my class on Wednesday, but that was the last time he was here."

Odd. "Thank you, Professor, I'll go look elsewhere."

Rose had a feeling that the lapses in Lockhart's memory weren't side effects from the spell backfire he'd suffered while her parents were in school after all. She suspected that it was something much more malicious than that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**A/N: Hello readers!This is my favourite chapter of the story!  
**

**So... I'm seriously considering a sequel to this story (and by that I mean I've plotted it out and written the first 2.5 chapters) and am interested to know if many people would be interested in reading it. It takes place after they've graduated, but Rose and Scorpius still get up to their usual borderline illegal shenanigans (though it's not just a rehashing of this one when they're older). I know sequels are rarely as well read as their originals and am curious. Thoughts?**

**As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**To yay: Yes, making a law for personal reasons is unethical and not in Hermione's character, but I pictured her realizing that making Extendable Ears outlawed would be for the good of everyone and making it happen.**

**To summerful21: There may be some in this chapter, but I'm not going to ruin it for you...**

**~Frosty**

"Why in the world did you want me to meet you in the Owlry?" Scorpius asked, looking in distaste at the owl droppings under his shoes.

"Because you're never going to be asked to join those new band of Death Eaters or whatever it is they call themselves if they find out that you're still friends with a Halfblood. Besides," she looked up to scan the birds roosting above their heads, "I have some business here."

It was notoriously difficult to get a distrustful owl to come down from its safe perch in the rafters, but Rose was good at being charming when she wanted to be. She cooed and clucked at the Great Horned Owl while she filled Scorpius in on what had happened with those three boys and Lockhart. The entire time, Scorpius laughed at her failed attempts to woo a bird.

"Shut up," Rose grumbled, wiping bits of straw and more unpleasant things form her butt as she pulled herself up from the ground. The bloody bird, annoyed with her, had dove at her, talons extended. "If you're so good then let's see you get the bird down here."

Smirking, Scorpius made a trilling sound in the back of his throat and extended an arm imperiously.

"Of course," Rose muttered in aggravation as the owl, meek as could be, flew down and obediently perched on Scorpius' outstretched arm. It was disgusting how smug Scorpius looked. "Just hold the stupid bird still."

Rose had been scouring transfiguration books for the perfect spell for the longest time. When she'd found it, she'd immediately rushed to the Owlry to put it into effect. Rose was many things, but she would never harm an innocent animal, so it had to be something that wouldn't hurt the bird, no matter how much of an unpleasant creature it was.

A complicated wave of her wand and an incantation that was startlingly simple in comparison had the bird changing shape before their eyes.

Scorpius started laughing when he saw that transformation. "It's a shame that you never try in transfiguration. I'm almost positive that you could have top grades on your own merit." He held the bird up to the light. "This is a flawless pigeon."

"Just get it out of here before one of these owls decides to eat it."

As Scorpius obeyed and launched the pigeon out the window, Rose heard someone approaching. They were whistling a Celestina Warbeck song.

Without a thought, Rose rushed forward, grabbed the front of Scorpius' shirt, and pulled him against her as she pressed her back to the wall. His larger form would cover her so that Christianson wouldn't know she'd been to the Owlry right before his bird disappeared.

The footsteps were getting closer and Scorpius was looking down at her questioningly. Just standing close wasn't good enough to fool most people.

She stood on her tiptoes, only pausing to glance into his eyes first, wanting to make sure that this was going to be okay. Scorpius gave her the tiniest of nods and then leaned the rest of the way to connect their lips.

The footsteps got closer and the whistling louder, but Rose had completely forgotten about them. She had expected kissing Scorpius to feel incestuous and wrong, but it wasn't. Her experience with intimacy wasn't vast and usually involved some form of manipulation that added a coldness to the act.

This was different.

Rose actually forgot where she was or why she was kissing someone she had until that moment thought of only platonically. She leaned against him, crushing as much of her body to his as she could manage, threading her fingers through his hair to keep his lips where she wanted them.

Their little ruse worked. The footsteps paused at the opening of the Owlry and the whistling stuttered to a startled stop. Christianson gave an awkward cough and then turned around, presumably deciding to give his owl its treats another time.

Rose didn't notice this little fact, but Scorpius did. He pulled away, keeping her in his arms for a moment while she stared at him, breathing heavily with pupils dilated and cheeks flushed. Scorpius wasn't in much better shape.

Wanting nothing more than to kiss him again and not used to being denied her wants, Rose leaned in for another kiss, only to be stopped when Scorpius put his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him.

"No," he said quietly but firmly.

There was a moment of disbelief where she just stared at him, unable to comprehend what had happened. Scorpius rarely denied her anything and she didn't understand how this was any different. After all, he had been enjoying himself as well, that much was clear from his similarly darkened eyes and the way he'd slid his tongue in her mouth – something that hadn't been required for their little ruse. So what was the harm? It wasn't like a snog in the corridor was going to interfere with their friendship. They were much too close for that.

Rose watched him carefully, still processing the fact that she'd just been rejected.

"Hughes came to me last night and asked me to join their little group. Apparently there's a meeting three days from now to plan their next attack. I'll go to the meeting and then we can alert the Aurors."

Surprised, Rose just nodded and let him walk away from her.

* * *

Since they were supposed to be fighting, Rose wasn't able to speak openly to Scorpius. Even worse, she couldn't find him anywhere when he was alone, so she wasn't able to slip him a note asking him to meet her somewhere. She suspected that this was intentional on his part.

It was the longest she had gone without being able to talk to Scorpius in years and she found herself going through some sort of withdrawal. Not only did she miss speaking to him, but she missed his steady presence at her side. He was the one to talk her down when her schemes got a little out of hand. It was Scorpius who acted as her conscience when her temper got the better of her and she was plotting something that could get her arrested.

She would never admit it, but she was a little lost without Scorpius. What made her truly angry with him was that she suspected he knew this fact – or that he'd at least guessed as much. He was too observant for something so important to go unnoticed.

Rose Weasley needed no one – or at least that's what she'd thought. Somewhere along the line Scorpius had become so much a part of her that she just wasn't herself without him.

She was so out of character that she actually went in search of Hy for some of the "girl talk" that Hy seemed so eager to try. As female Slytherin seventh years Rose and Hy shared a room, so Rose didn't have to search very far.

"Hy, can I talk to you?" Rose asked, feeling out of her element and surprisingly vulnerable. She didn't unload her problems on anyone but Scorpius, but this time Scorpius _was _her problem. This was so far out of her comfort zone that Rose wasn't sure she'd ever find it again.

The other girl looked startled for a moment before gesturing to her bed in invitation. Rose perched on the edge and watched as Hy rifled through her trunk, probably in search of the perfect outfit.

"What was it you needed?" Hy looked up at her expectantly, a shirt in each hand. She moved to stand in front of the mirror propped against the wall, holding each one to her chest before pursing her lips and looking to Rose for assistance.

Startled that her input was valuable enough for Hy to ask for it, Rose pointed to the one on the left. There was no way the other one would have covered Hy's breasts.

When Rose was quiet for too long, Hy turned knowing eyes on her. "This is about Scorpius, isn't it?"

Their other roommate, a perpetually grumpy girl named Mildred, was off scowling somewhere, so Rose was free to speak her mind without worrying about being overhead. Just in case, she cast a silencing spell on the door, something that made Hy raise amused eyebrows.

"He kissed me – well, I told him to. It wasn't supposed to mean anything, but then I got a little too involved and forgot why we were doing it. Now he won't talk to me. What am I supposed to do?"

"If I were you, I'd shag him and let the chips fall where they may, but I don't think that's what you want."

Rose shook her head. "I don't feel... right without him."

"Wow, you've got it bad." Hy changed shirts and then fluffed her hair, thinking about the problem.

Anxiously, Rose awaited the more experienced girl's solution.

"What's it like to be in love?" Hy finally asked wistfully.

Rose knew then that Hy wasn't going to be any help with her problem. Still she answered, "If this is love, I'm not sure I'm going to survive a serious relationship. I feel horrible."

* * *

"Why so glum, Rosie?" Ron asked. He and Harry had decided to pay her a surprise visit the night before the Hogsmeade trip. Rose hadn't spoken to Scorpius in almost a week and it was starting to interfere with her sleep.

Since Scorpius hadn't informed her of how his meeting with the Death Eaters had gone, she'd been forced to report to her dad and uncle what she knew and tell them that they were going to have to talk to Scorpius if they wanted to fill in the blanks. It had been humiliating, but she didn't even have the energy to muster up proper anger. Even she was starting to worry about herself.

"Nothing, Daddy," she said, trying – and failing – to keep the sigh out of her voice. She was supposed to be perky and adoring. Something was wrong with her acting skills. Her energy was so low that she couldn't even be properly deceitful.

This didn't mean that she was suddenly stupid though. "I'd rather talk about you and Uncle Harry. How come you're visiting me tonight? Something happened at that meeting of Scorpius' didn't it?"

Ron made a comment about her definitely being her mother's daughter and it was left to Harry to answer her.

"Yes, something did happen, they laid out careful plans for another attack. We've arranged for a decoy and are going to catch them in the act, arrest the lot of them."

"There's something else," Rose pressed.

The two Aurors exchanged a telling look, but it was Ron who spoke this time, "Rosie, honey, we've discussed it and we think it best that you sit this one out. You've already been attacked once and we don't want to risk you becoming caught up in something dangerous and getting hurt. You're still underage."

She bristled at the tone and the idea that she needed to be coddled. Rose knew that it was mostly her fault for playing a helpless little daddy's girl for most of her life, but it still didn't make her any less angry at being told to sit at the castle like a good girl and wait for the big, strong men to defeat the criminals. Almost all of the work on the case had been done by her. She'd arranged everything, practically handed them the arrest on a silver platter and now they were just going to cut her out of the equation?

No.

"Nice going, Ron," Harry grumbled, seeing that Rose hadn't taken the news well.

She quickly smoothed her face into a pleasant expression. "No, it's all right Uncle Harry. I understand that I'd just be in the way."

Harry cringed at her tone, but Ron missed the dangerous inflection entirely, too busy believing that she was his perfect little girl.

"I'm feeling really tired," she said with a large yawn that wasn't faked. "Can you come tell me when you get the bad guys? I'll just feel so much safer once the school's free of Death Eaters."

Ron assured her that they would and bid her goodnight.

"There, see, Harry? I told you there was nothing to worry about."

"We'll see," Harry said, watching Rose's retreating back with concern. He'd seen that resolute look on her mother's face before and it never boded well for those on Hermione's bad side.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**A/N: Hello readers! Happy St. Patrick's Day!**

**So I got quite a bit of interest in a sequel and kept writing it. I'm just writing the starting of chapter 6.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**To yay: That's sort of what happened. Scorpius will clear it up in a few chapters.**

**To summerful21: I thought Rose needed an abnormal amount of confidence – in herself and Scorpius. It just seemed to fit. So I couldn't make her all insecure. It's surprisingly refreshing to just skip over the "what did he mean by that" angst and move on with writing the story. I wish the same thing...**

**To Guest: The sequel to The Case of the Creature Kidnappings is getting there. I'm almost done writing chapter 17, but won't be posting it until I'm finished writing it.**

**~Frosty**

The morning of the Hogsmeade trip dawned cold and rainy. Rose was no stranger to rain, but that didn't mean its presence made her foul mood any less horrible. Looking up at the clouds and pouring rain in the magical ceiling of the Great Hall, she frowned so hard that the resulting lines were probably permanently etched into her face.

"If you're not careful, your face is going to stick like that," Hy said from beside her.

Rose shifted her glare to the girl at her side but didn't comment. Any words that came from her mouth would probably be mean ones and she didn't want to ruin their budding friendship just because she was in a horrible mood.

"So, are you ready for Hogsmeade this weekend? I thought we could leave breakfast early and spend some extra time on makeup or something." Hy was trying to distract her, and Rose appreciated it, but she wasn't the type to wear makeup without ulterior motives. Besides, it just didn't seem practical when the rain would only wash it off again.

Hy was looking so hopeful that Rose just couldn't bring herself to crush her. "As soon as the paper gets here."

Right on schedule, an army of owls flooded into the room, barraging students with their mail and various copies of the paper. The quiet shuffling of parchment and sleepy conversations were interrupted only minutes later by a surprisingly high-pitched scream.

Hy looked at Rose questioningly when a Cheshire smile broke out over her face. Instead of answering, Rose spread out her copy of the paper flat on the table so that Hy could get a good look at the front page headline.

_**Morgana Christianson, Wizengamot Member, Arrested for Child Trafficking**_

The accompanying picture showed Ivan's mother as she was dragged out of her home kicking and screaming by a pair of annoyed Aurors. It had been Ivan's scream to ruin the early-morning peace of the Great Hall.

Originally, Rose had planned on something simple, maybe a nice scandal with shagging an intern, but in the process of planning it and organizing for the evidence to be planted, Rose had discovered a few details that didn't add up and did some snooping. A few anonymous tips here and there, and the formerly powerful woman was in disgrace and on her way to prison.

The child trafficking charges were actually deserved. Morgana had run a service to magical families that took away their Squib children and sold them to wealthy houses as servants. It was horrible and she deserved prison for what she'd done.

Christianson was so distraught that he had to be escorted out of the Great Hall by the Headmistress. The details had fallen together so nicely that Rose almost didn't miss the fact that she couldn't share her successful scheme with Scorpius.

Hy clapped her hands and laughed in delight as she watched the moving picture of the Aurors dragging Mrs. Christianson from her house again and again.

Across the hall, Rose's eyes met Lily's. Rose gave the smallest of nods, as close as a bow as she could get without incriminating herself. Lily bent down to read the headline one more time before watching a crying Ivan leave the hall. She burst into laughter, startling a few of her fellow Gryffindors.

* * *

Hy had the best intentions, but she just didn't have the attention span to entertain a friend when there were so many willing boys hanging around. They had only been in Hogsmeade for half an hour when Rose got tired of Hy's longing stares.

"Go," she said impatiently.

Hy wrung her hands. "Are you sure?"

"Go." It was almost unbearable to watch Hy's eyes light up with excitement for each boy who showed interest and then watch that excitement die when she remembered that she wasn't there alone. At least this way, one of them got to have a good time.

Rose was a little disgusted with her sudden selflessness, but she comforted herself with the fact that this probably meant that she was growing as a person... or something.

The rain that had let up while they were walking into town chose the moment Hy left to return with a vengeance. Normally, Rose would have sought shelter, but she was in a melancholic, brooding mood that suited the rain. She was only going to be an angsty teenager once, so she might as well get her moody walk in the rain out of the way.

It only took her a few minutes in the rain to remember that she hated being cold. Walking in the rain just to feel poetic and deep while depressed had been a stupid idea. Rose certainly wasn't going to try _that _again.

She had made it all the way out to the Shrieking Shack before she realized how stupid she was being and turned to head back, only to find that there was something in her path. Rose bashed into a solid body and very nearly fell on her butt. She would have landed in the mud if the owner of said body hadn't reached out and grabbed her arms to steady her.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed, once again using that angry tone she wasn't used to. Pissing him off seemed all that she could manage these days.

"I wanted to go for a walk."

Scorpius was dripping wet, his hair plastered to his head and his coat probably weighing twice its usual amount with all the water it had absorbed. He looked cold – everything except his eyes, that is. Those held enough burning anger that Rose was tempted to hold out her hands and see if it would warm them.

"I should have known not to trust your dad when he assured me you weren't going to be here today," Scorpius growled.

If he hadn't been so angry with her, Rose knew that growl would have sent happy tingles down her spine.

Who was she kidding?

Even though he was furious with her, that rumble sound in his voice gave her tingles.

"More importantly, you should have known that telling me to stay away without even bothering with an explanation would just make me do the opposite of what I'm told."

He accepted that without argument. "I should have, but that doesn't matter anymore. You're here now and we're going to have to do some improvising."

The pieces finally clicked together and she realized what she'd been too self-absorbed to notice when her dad had been telling her to stay away from Hogsmeade.

"I'm the target, aren't I?"

Scorpius nodded grimly. "And you wandered over here just as I was supposed to get the decoy."

Peeking in the direction he indicated with his eyes, Rose saw a female Auror with a wig that looked just like her hair. The woman didn't look happy. In fact, she was mouthing some very rude words at Rose while glancing towards the trees where Rose could only assume her father and uncle were hiding.

"Looks like we're in this alone then," Rose said.

"Your dad is going to kill me."

When Scorpius nodded, indicating a direction, Rose obediently started forward. She was so pathetically pleased to be with Scorpius again that she almost wasn't concerned to be walking into a trap.

"Don't worry," she said, "This is mostly his fault for keeping me out of the loop."

Suddenly, Scorpius grabbed both of her arms and pinned them to her sides from behind.

"This would be more convincing if you struggled and looked scared," he murmured, pushing her forward in a way that looked rough but really wasn't.

It wasn't really hard for her to act scared; she glanced from side to side, catching sight of her uncle and father's horrified faces from where they were hiding in the bushes. Rose made sure that it looked like she was desperately searching for a way to escape, not that she was scanning the area to see if she could spot the other Aurors.

"Scorpius, what the heck do you think you're doing?" she demanded, trying to yank herself out of his hold. She raised her voice so that wherever those boys who fancied themselves Death Eaters were hiding, they'd be able to hear her objections.

"Is this because I got a boyfriend and didn't need you anymore? Because you're not going to get away with manhandling me like this. I know your weaknesses and I will _destroy _you."

"Nice," Scorpius murmured, pretending that he was hissing threats.

If the situation hadn't been so dire, Rose would have smiled. Her ability to make threats was one of her most valuable skills and Scorpius was one of the few people who could appreciate it – mostly because he was one of the few people towards whom said threats were rarely directed towards.

They rounded the side of the Shrieking Shack. The building itself was locked down with spells too strong and thorough for the average student to break through, so the three boys that Rose had seen with Lockhart were just gathered on the far side of the building. As far as secret meeting places went, it was both overdone and unimpressive.

"Well, Scorpius," Luciano Zabini said, running his eyes over Rose, "To be honest, I didn't think you were going to have the balls to bring us your little spitfire."

Zabini was the only one of these people that Rose had actually liked at some point. He was Scorpius' cousin, so she'd seen him at her friend's house in the past and she'd _thought _they'd been having a good time. Apparently she was wrong and he'd been secretly thinking of ways to start a movement against people with her heritage. It was clear that Zabini was the one in charge from the way the other two stood slightly behind him, seeming to wait for an order. He had always enjoyed giving orders. Maybe this was just the best way for him to pick up minions?

"Blood's thicker than water," Scorpius answered his cousin. He adjusted his hold on Rose, making it appear that he was holding her tighter while using the motion to hide the fact that he slipped her wand from her pocket.

"Pat her down," Zabini ordered Hughes. "You seem to have enjoyed it the last time you did it."

Ew, he'd talked about her. It made her feel kind of dirty. Rose hoped he had been mocked mercilessly for the lipstick he'd had smeared all over his face.

Scorpius released her and Hughes came forward. As a general rule, patting someone down for weapons wasn't creepy, but Hughes had a gift. He lingered over areas where it was very unlikely that she'd hidden something as large as a wand and had a smarmy smirk on his face the entire time.

When he pulled away, Rose desperately wanted a long, scalding hot shower to remove his contamination from her. The cold rain just wasn't cutting it as far as cleansing went. Sure, she'd had his tongue in her mouth not too long ago, but that had been different. She had been in control of that situation and it made all of the difference.

As she stumbled back from Hughes, Scorpius grabbed her from behind once more. His hold looked like he was just trying to keep her extra secure as she struggled and spit insults at him, but it was really more of a hug that served the added bonus of hiding his movements as he returned her wand to her pocket.

Never had Rose been so thankful that they'd spent most of their third year perfecting their pick-pocketing ability. She would hate to face whatever these people had in store for her without her wand.

Rose wasn't stupid. She knew the law well - mostly because she spent a lot of her time dancing the line of legality and it helped to know on which side she'd fall if caught. The case against these boys stood a good chance of being dismissed as a witch hunt against Purebloods. They needed to actually see these boys doing something wrong instead of just talking about it, which meant that Rose had to actually let them hit her at least once.

Scorpius squeezed her arms in brief comfort as Zabini approached her. This wasn't going to be fun for either of them.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**A/N: Hello readers! It's still snowing. Gah. But here! Second to last chapter!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**To Guest: Sorry, I'm not going to ruin the ending by answering those questions, but there's only one chapter left, so you won't have to wait long to find out!**

**To Yay: Ugh. Always pointing out the things I never thought of. I appreciate it though, it makes me a better writer. I'm going to say that they would have used some charms to change the Auror's face enough to make her pass for Rose or possibly something to confuse them into thinking she was Rose (though I hadn't really thought of it until you pointed it out). Scorpius is an informant or something, there's no way he'd go down with the Death Eater people since he was working with the Aurors. Also, for two people who love secrets and manipulation so much, I thought pick pocketing was the perfect hobby.**

**~Frosty**

Magic was dangerous and effective, but it was impersonal, cold. Rose should have probably been scared that these people were planning to beat her within an inch of her life like they had with the last girl that they'd cornered. Someone with proper self-preservation would have been scared.

Rose was mostly concerned with the tendril of hair that was stuck uncomfortably to her cheek. Her struggles to escape from Scorpius had dislodged it from the rest of her hair and the wetness from the cold rain stuck it there. It was itchy.

Sure, the danger was real, but she was confident that no real harm would come to her. Scorpius was right there with her and her dad and uncle were not far away. The Aurors would be able to intervene before things got too out of hand – she hoped.

"Why me?" she asked Luciano. She had always thought that they were kind of friends – as close as she ever got with people who weren't Scorpius, anyway.

"You think just because your parents are war heroes you're better than everyone else. That you can rule the school like you're entitled to it."

Rose raised an eyebrow. She knew that she was a force to be reckoned with inside the halls of Hogwarts, but she thought "ruling the school" was a little bit of a stretch of her role. Besides, school domination wasn't her goal; that was so... juvenile. She just wanted to play a few mind games and execute the occasional blackmail scheme. If she dominated the school, then those things would be unnecessary and her fun would be ruined.

"And why did you choose Jade Day? What did she ever do to anyone?" She didn't pay much attention to people who were of no use to her, but Rose had looked into the girl who was the first victim. The picture her research had painted was of a flighty but kind girl who had no real ties to anyone that would want to hurt her.

"That was me," Reid said, ignoring the quelling looks of his fellow Death Eater wannabes. "I asked her on a date with me and she laughed! Told me that she'd never date a bully like me."

Rose made the mistake of laughing. Her mirth ended the conversation part of their little interaction and started the painful part.

With a completely calm expression, Zabini dated forward and punched her in the face hard enough to slam her back against Scorpius' chest. Luckily, her friend knew enough to take a step back with her so that she didn't give her poor head another jolt by hitting an unmoving wall of muscle and flesh.

There. They'd done it. The bloody bastards had gone and implicated themselves, hitting her and everything. No one would be able to claim that they'd just been playing war games or something silly like that. Rose knew from reading her mum's law books that such an excuse had worked in the past.

She was a little dazed but still managed to draw her wand and stun a scared-looking Reid while Scorpius whipped out his own wand and engaged his cousin in a duel. Hughes tried to flee when he saw that there was no one left to keep him safe from Rose. She snorted at the irony of that; two Slytherins working with Aurors to stop Death Eaters and it was the Gryffindor that fled – or _tried _to flee.

Harry caught Hughes, who was too busy watching Rose to look in front of him. She raised a hand and wiggled her fingers at him, grinning evilly just as he collided with her uncle. The rapidly forming bruise on her jaw really hurt with the change of expression, but she didn't ruin the moment by letting her pain show. It would give the arsehole too much satisfaction.

Trusting Scorpius to handle his cousin, Rose made her way over to the unconscious Reid and took his wand while keeping one eye on the duel to avoid being hit by a stray spell.

Ron reached her as she pocketed the boy's wand and immediately grabbed her up in a big hug. "I was so worried when you wandered right into a trap," he said, holding her by the shoulders at arm's distance so that he could get a good look at the bruise forming on her face.

Before answering, Rose checked that Scorpius was fine. Harry and the female Auror had waited for an opening and then jumped into Scorpius' duel with his cousin, apprehending Zabini. Scorpius had a burn mark on one shoulder that he was poking at, but he appeared otherwise fine.

Her dad had watched her deliberately ignore his instructions, calmly attack a boy, and literally laugh in the face of her attackers. She could see it in his eyes that his view of her had changed significantly, so she saw no reason in continuing her facade.

"I'm fine, Dad." Touching a gentle hand to her face, she prodded at the bump there to see if anything felt broken. Nope, just sore. "Just a little bruised."

Scorpius came up behind her and, ignoring her dad for the moment, grabbed her shoulder to turn her towards him. He ghosted a finger along the edge of her bruise while Rose reached up and pulled at his robes so she could judge the damage the spell had done to him. There was a small burn there, it looked like a bad sunburn and probably stung, but he was going to be fine.

Over the course of their investigation of each other, they both forgot about Ron, who was shortly joined by Harry a few metres away from the pair.

"You're okay?" Scorpius asked when they had both completed their inspections but didn't lessen the distance between them.

She nodded. "You?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes at her coddling. Apparently it was unreasonable for her to ask, yet acceptable for him to do the exact same thing. She would have scolded him for it if she hadn't been so pleased that the both of them were uninjured.

Remembering that her family were watching, Rose stepped away from him, brushing her hands down her coat to straighten it after all the restraining Scorpius had done. "Let's never do that again," she said, counting on Scorpius to know that she was talking about more than the whole duelling and getting punched business. She had missed him.

His smile showed he knew exactly what she meant. "Agreed."

"Are you two finished now?" Harry asked with amusement.

If she hadn't already ruined her facade of a sweet, innocent girl, Rose would have been finished, but the gig was up.

"Almost," she said.

Scorpius tried to take a step away from her when he saw the gleam in her eye, but she was too quick for him. Her hand darted out and grabbed the front of his robes, yanking him down to her level.

"If you ever lie to me again, _especially _if it's some misguided effort to keep me safe, I will see to it that you spend the rest of your life wishing that you'd never even _heard _the name Rose Weasley," she said, their noses almost touching.

The jerk wasn't thrown in the least; Rose could see it in the amusement shining in his eyes. Well, she could fix that. Leaning forward quickly, Rose pecked him on the lips, pulling away before he could do anything.

When he saw Ron's disapproving expression, Scorpius glared at Rose. She knew about his wariness of her volatile father and she'd essentially made a target out of him.

Grinning evilly, she bounced over to her father's side. "I think we should go back to Hogwarts now."

"We have to take these three into custody," Harry said, frowning at the would-be Death Eaters. "You two should go back to the castle and get your injuries seen to."

Glancing at her dad once more to see that he was still staring at her and Scorpius, shocked – either over her attitude or the little kiss she'd given Scorpius, she wasn't sure which – Rose nodded. The rain had let up a little, but it was still cold and she was soaked through, shivering. Her lips were probably blue. She turned towards the castle and started walking briskly, trying to wrestle her wand out of her pocket to cast a warming charm. Maybe even a drying charm as well.

Scorpius walked up beside her. "That wasn't nice," he murmured, keeping one eye on Ron at all times in case the man decided to attack from behind.

"Since when have you been silly enough to think me a nice person?"

When no response came, Rose looked up at Scorpius, whose attention had been captured elsewhere.

"There's your boyfriend," Scorpius said with a subtle nod of his head, "And his boyfriend."

Rose glanced over and smiled at the couple. Apparently Noah had decided that his relationship was worth risking his reputation. She was proud of him. Noah had guts to stand up to her threats. Just this once, she may let someone get away with disobeying her.

Catching sight of his audience, Noah cringed slightly, but then grinned when Rose gave him a little nod. She was fine with their fake relationship being over.

* * *

"Explain to me again how you convinced Hughes to recruit Scorpius to their new Death Eater group," Harry said, looking down at his notes with a furrowed brow.

Rose and Scorpius were making their statements, talking the Aurors through everything they had done leading up to apprehending the group of boys intent on harming Rose. Understandably, Rose had glossed over some of the less savory details of her plotting.

"I just told him that Scorpius was making remarks about my parentage and I needed his help stopping Scorpius."

"He just believed that you two weren't getting along?" Harry asked doubtfully. He'd already questioned Howell Hughes and knew first hand that the boy was contrary and only looked out for himself. His instincts were telling him that Rose was keeping out bits of her story – potentially significant bits.

While Harry and Ron went to the Ministry to interrogate their criminals, Rose and Scorpius had reported to the Hospital Wing to get their minor injuries repaired. There was still a splotchy green mark on Rose's face and Scorpius had a smelly potion-soaked linen stuck to his shoulder, but neither of them were in pain anymore. The pair had made a silent agreement to leave the discussion they needed to have until later, when they were alone and had the time.

"I... distracted him a little bit," Rose hedged.

Having not slept much the previous night because he was with the Death Eaters putting the finishing touches on the attack on Rose, Scorpius was tired and losing patience. He folded his arms on the table and thumped his head down on them.

"Just tell them," he groaned, his voice muffled by his sleeves, "They're going to get it out of you anyway."

"He's right, Rosie," Ron said, reaching across the table and patting her arm. They were in abandoned classroom, Rose and Scorpius sitting on the student's side of the desk while Ron and Harry had pulled up chairs to the other side.

"I just don't see why this one tiny detail is so important."

"Rose, I still have to work on that Transfiguration essay tonight and I'm exhausted," Scorpius said, a warning in his eyes.

She tilted her chin up a little, challenging him. It was a bad idea.

Scorpius didn't even pause before he sat up, turned to her uncle and said, "It was her push-up bra and red lipstick that got his attention, then she snogged him to distract him before she made her request."

"Scorpius!" Rose used her pointy elbow to jab him in the side, but the git was unapologetic, laughing at her horror.

Nodding, Harry wrote this down. "Anything else that she omitted?" he asked, his question directed towards the blond. Ron probably had an opinion on the matter, but he just stared at Scorpius and waited to see what else the blond had to reveal.

Rose dove, trying to cover his mouth, but there was no stopping Scorpius. "He believed her so quickly because she slapped me in front of the entire Great Hall and yelled that I'd said disparaging comments about your wife."

"He didn't _actually _say anything," Rose yelled when her dad started reaching for his wand. She was mad at Scorpius, but she didn't want to have to undo whatever curses her dad cast. Probably because of all of the things they'd gone through during the war, Ron never let anyone use the M word around Hermione. Rose thought it was kind of sweet when the habit wasn't endangering the lives of her friends.

For a brief moment, she was so concerned about his well-being that she forgot to elbow him again. She supposed that this was payback for the little peck she'd given him earlier.

"Anything else?" Harry asked before the situation got out of hand.

Rose didn't try to stop Scorpius this time because there was nothing else embarrassing that pertained to the case.

"The only thing that Rose's story and my earlier meeting with you hasn't covered is Lockhart's memory. They were using his classroom for meetings and then erasing his memory after. That way, if they were discovered, they just claimed that they were getting extra help with their work. Since they were supervised by a teacher, no one questioned them, and since Lockhart was too scared of being sent back to St. Mungos, he didn't tell anyone about it." Scorpius looked between the two Aurors, the bags under his eyes a statement to how exhausted he really was. "Can we leave now?"

"You can go, Scorpius. I want to have a word with Rose," Ron said.

Clearing his throat, Harry gathered his papers. "I'm going to head back to the Ministry and submit the paperwork."

Left alone with her dad, Rose was tempted to turn her usual, wide-eyed innocent expression on him to escape the scolding she expected. She managed to restrain herself and looked at him levelly, waiting for whatever he was going to throw at her.

"Rose, we need to talk."

Yeah, she'd kind of figured.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**A/N: LAST CHAPTER! Kay, so I was going to do my a/n now and then post the chapter first thing tomorrow morning, but then I figured that a lot of you wake up earlier than me. This way, you can read it when you wake up! Or before you sleep...**

**Did the font on here change for other people too or did the cat walk over my keyboard and change something I'll never be able to fix again?**

**Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, especially to those who reviewed every chapter! Also thanks to irianaceleste for betaing (I added a few lines right before the first divider and am too lazy to PM you about it).**

**To Guest: I'm working on both sequels. Soon. It's about the same temperature here. It sucks.**

**To yay: Hy and Rose have gotten closer over the course of this story, but Rose didn't count them as friends until towards the second half of this story. I didn't forget Blaise, he has an appearance before the end. I never even realized I was writing her analyzing relationships with everyone, but I see it now...**

**~Frosty**

Rose hung her head. "I figured as much."

"Why did you think you had to hide so much of yourself from me?"

Uncomfortable with the sharing of feelings, Rose kept her head down and poked at a blank piece of parchment that her uncle had left behind. "You always used to joke that if I was ever sorted into Slytherin, you'd disown me. You said it all the time while I was growing up, so I hid any characteristics that might get me sorted into Slytherin." She smiled wryly at the parchment she'd started to shred. "You can hide things from your family but not the Sorting Hat."

"Rose, I wasn't serious when I said those things," he put a hand on top of hers to stop her destruction of the parchment.

Rose looked up at him then. "You were a little serious, but it's okay. After I was sorted, I sat down beside Scorpius and we've been inseparable ever since. I've never hidden my devious bits from him and he still accepts me."

"I think he does more than accept you," Ron grumbled, remembering the kiss he'd witnessed.

Rose wasn't so sure, but she didn't want to have that conversation with her dad. It would be too awkward and she'd already had more than enough discussing of her feelings with him for one day.

"I'll love you no matter what," Ron said firmly. "Don't ever doubt that."

"Even if I take pleasure in systematically destroying people?" Her question was half-mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing," Rose said quickly, jumping up and throwing her arms around her father. "I love you, Daddy."

* * *

The exhaustion that Scorpius had claimed to be feeling was starting to creep up on Rose as well by the time she and her dad had finished their little heart to heart. She wasn't sure how she felt about him knowing her secret, though she supposed that it wasn't really much of a secret anymore. On one hand, she didn't have to put so much effort into concealing her true nature. On the other, he was a lot more likely to believe it if one of her teachers went to him claiming that Rose bribed or blackmailed her way into good grades.

Rose wanted her bed, but there were a few things she had to do before she could rest.

The Potions classroom was dark when she got there. Rose had asked a passing House Elf if Professor Zabini had gone home yet, and the elf insisted that he was still in his classroom. She knocked on the door and then, upon receiving no answer, pushed it open.

Professor Zabini looked up in surprise when she entered. He'd had his head resting in his hands, and Rose could see that he looked drawn and haunted. She supposed that's what people looked like when they realized that they didn't really know their children. Rose hoped that her dad was taking the news about her a little better than Zabini was about his son.

Taking it as a good sign that he didn't immediately banish her from his presence, Rose walked up to his desk. She was uncomfortable _again_. She was going to have to do some majorly devious things in the next week just to get herself feeling normal again – that is, if she survived the next few minutes.

"Someone's told you, then?" she asked quietly.

Zabini nodded. "It has yet to sink in though. After everything we went through growing up under the thumb of Death Eaters, to find out my son was trying to restart the movement now that we're finally free from them is a slap in the face." Rose had the disconcerting feeling that he was telling her too much because he'd forgotten that she was there. These things needed to be said, she could tell, so she just stood there nodding, getting increasingly uncomfortable with every new piece of information.

"I can't even go home," he continued. "I don't know how I'm going to face my wife knowing that our son went so horribly wrong right under my nose."

Looking up them, he smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, Rose. You don't need to hear this. Was there a particular reason you came to find me?"

"I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. He's misguided, but he's still your son, and I played a part in putting him behind bars." Mentally, Rose was compensating for this display of softness by drafting plans to exact her own revenge on the younger Zabini for her bruise. The few people she'd run into on the way to Professor Zabini's office had really stared at the healing green blotch on her face and he needed to pay for punching her. Time in prison just wasn't enough.

"No apology necessary, Rose. I'm just glad he was caught before he did anyone any major harm. Now you should get some sleep, you look exhausted."

She hesitated. "Professor? I think you should probably go home to your wife now."

"I think you may be right." He started shuffling papers on his desk, preparing to leave.

Her work done, Rose headed to the door.

"Oh, and Rose?" he called after her.

Rose turned around. "Sir?"

"I want to make sure you know that I didn't raise him that way."

She smiled awkwardly, even more uncomfortable than she'd yet to be that day. Since when had Professor Zabini needed her to understand how he raised his son? Did his opinion matter that much?

Forcing her smile to become a little more genuine, she nodded. "I know."

* * *

Her next stop was Scorpius, and she feared that it was going to be no less emotionally exhausting and uncomfortable than her last few encounters.

Apparently, even a duel, an arrest, and then time spent locked in a classroom with a murderous father acting as an Auror to take statements after a run-in with Death Eaters wasn't enough to keep Scorpius away from his schoolwork. Rose searched the Slytherin common room for him, having already checked the library. He wasn't there; the common room was much too loud to get anything done. The entire school had heard about the arrests of their classmates and wherever Rose went, she overhead excited conversation speculating what could have led to their arrest.

After asking around a bit, she found Scorpius in his bed, scratching away at his parchment while he used a book as a writing surface. Knowing that their head of house was right at that moment speaking with his wife about their son's arrest, Rose didn't worry about getting caught as she wandered in and plopped on the bed beside him. Scorpius shot her a glare when his inkwell nearly toppled onto his sheets but didn't comment further on her presence.

The git was going to make her start this conversation! Her lips pulled down in an annoyed frown. Nevertheless, she accepted the challenge.

"Today's been eventful," she tried, hoping that he'd pick up the conversation from there. At the very least, maybe he would help her along a bit, perhaps even look at her if he was feeling particularly generous.

The quill didn't even pause in its journey across his paper.

Fine, if that was the way he was going to play it, she wasn't going to dance around the issue.

"Why'd you push me away?" she asked. It had been bothering her the way he had literally held her away from him by the shoulders when she'd tried to lean in to continue their kiss. Rose wasn't rejected often and it stung, especially coming from Scorpius.

"I didn't want our first real kiss to be the result of manipulation."

That was kind of sweet, which was completely unlike Scorpius. Rose searched his eyes for signs that he was deceiving her but didn't find any. Not even Scorpius was good enough to fake the kind of earnestness and affection - possibly even _love_- that was weighing his gaze.

"I don't have ulterior motives _now_," she said quietly.

It was his turn to stare at her hard, searching for something in the depths of her eyes. "This thing between us probably isn't going to end well," he finally commented.

Briefly, she paused to contemplate the blackmail, scheming, and manipulation of which the both of them were capable. Then she moved on to imagine the state of the school should they turn the full force of their deviousness on each other in an all out war. The picture wasn't pretty.

Still, she thought it was worth a shot. In the event that they didn't end in a domino effect of deviousness that could very well take down the school with them, they could be happy together. Rose just knew it.

"Excuses! Stop being a chicken and kiss me."

Scorpius remained where he was, examining her. Rolling her eyes, Rose tackled him and mashed their mouths together, softening when they accidentally bumped teeth in her hurry. Having fallen on his back under the force of her tackle, Scorpius made no effort to push her away, instead he responded – if a little reluctantly – to her ministrations. Rose took that as a good sign.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" she asked, lifting her head to meet his eyes. She was sprawled on his chest, so she was confident that he wouldn't be able to just run away like he'd done the last time she'd kissed him.

"That wasn't a kiss; that was assault."

She rolled her eyes once more. "Show me then."

Freeing the arm that had gotten squished under Rose when she jumped on him, Scorpius put a hand on either side of her face and placed the most gentle, sentimental kiss on her lips. It was completely out of character for either of them.

"You can do better than that," she scoffed.

"You just want me to kiss you again." He was still holding her face, so her smile pushed her cheeks against his palms.

"Maybe I just missed you and realized that not even plotting was fun without you there to share it with me. Maybe I've become so used to you being there with me every day that I didn't realize how important you were until we had to spend some time apart."

He kissed her, cutting off whatever else she'd been planning on saying. Not even Rose was certain how long she would have continued had he not stopped her tirade. Talking about her feelings was hard with Scorpius, but she wasn't used to hiding things from him, something that made talking to him infinitely easier than explaining herself to her father.

This time it was different than his gentle peck and her tackle kiss. Rose and Scorpius were not gentle people, something that was reflected in their kiss. It was all fire and a struggle for dominance; nips and caresses and even a pinch when Scorpius rolled them over so that he was on top of Rose. She hadn't liked being toppled from her position of power and made her displeasure known.

Uncomfortable, Rose shifted her legs until Scorpius rested between them, cradled by her thighs. With anyone else, she would have felt trapped, but this was perfect.

A little too perfect. Blissfully happy was not a familiar place for Rose.

She pulled away, smiling at Scorpius' darkened eyes. Even if he was an amazing liar and she'd misread him – which she knew she hadn't – he wouldn't be able to hide that he was attracted to her, especially with the way their lower halves were pressed together.

He quirked an eyebrow in silent question, wondering why they'd stopped.

"Or maybe I just wanted you to kiss me again," she said with a grin.

Scorpius wasn't fooled. Scorpius was never fooled. His face was suddenly serious. "I may love you."

It was a warning more than anything. He was telling her to stop right now, to leave him there and give him some space if she wasn't serious about them being together. Underneath this seriousness though, Rose saw that he was only warning her in the first place because he needed their friendship just as much as she did.

Rose didn't let him bring her happy mood down with uncomfortable sappiness. Besides, he should have known better. "I will neither confirm nor deny my feelings until you kiss me again."

She didn't need to clarify what she meant, Scorpius understood.

* * *

Not much changed between them in the eyes of the public. They sat a little closer and occasionally allowed their hands to brush as they walked side by side, but otherwise gave almost no indication that their relationship had shifted significantly.

Their relationship, of course, didn't distract them in the least from their usual way of life. It was only two days after the arrests of their classmates that Rose walked into the Great Hall a little late, having overslept, to find that there was something strange happening.

"What's going on?" Rose asked, sitting down beside Scorpius and looking towards the head table, where Headmistress McGonagall was talking quickly in Professor Griffith's ear. As she watched, the professor's face paled and he shook his head vehemently.

"I'm not positive," Scorpius said, the corner of his mouth twitching as he fought a smile, "But if I had to guess, I'd say that the Headmistress just found some pictures in Professor Griffith's classroom of him and Phoebe Clark doing some very inappropriate things."

Thoughtlessly nibbling on a piece of toast, Rose nodded. "Interesting approach. It's simple but elegant. Took you forever though."

Scorpius shrugged. "I was busy."

"Why didn't they try to expel you sooner for the whole assault thing?" Rose asked. They hadn't been talking for a stretch, and then she'd been so busy that she'd plain forgotten to ask him about that.

"Headmistress McGonagall didn't believe that I would randomly assault a girl I'd tried so hard to escape not so long ago. She refused to take such severe action against me until she had something more than a crazy woman's words as proof - I'm paraphrasing, of course."

Since everyone's attention was riveted on Professor Griffith as he was marched from the room by the Headmistress, Rose allowed herself a moment of affection. She leaned her head against Scorpius' shoulder, rubbing his knee under the table. "I love it when you talk devious."

"I know you do." He removed her hand from his leg and placed it on the table beside her fork – not because he wasn't enjoying the attention, but because he was enjoying it too much to be appropriate for a public place. Scorpius was a bit of a prude that way and Rose thought it was both hilarious and adorable.

Rose sighed, but took the hint and started piling food on her plate. "Now that you're done with that business, you're free to help me make plans for Luciano. You're family, so you can visit him in prison without arousing too much suspicion."

"What were you thinking?"

"I'm torn between making sure that his cell is infested with large, hostile rats for the duration of his stay, or hiring a Muggleborn actress to make him fall in love with her, only to tell him that she's a Muggleborn and break his heart when she leaves him." She sighed, looking genuinely distraught. "I'm limited because I don't want to upset Professor Zabini by completely breaking his son or disgracing their family name."

Scorpius briefly rested a consoling hand on her shoulder. "Think of this as an exercise in creativity – or restraint." He pondered the choices seriously for a moment. "I think the first option would be better. Uncle Blaise would be annoyed if your revenge only strengthened Luciano's prejudices."

"Maybe he'll get rabies." She said it with all of the optimistic hopefulness of a child proclaiming on the last day of summer vacation that maybe school would be cancelled for the year.

Not pleased with his cousin in the least and nowhere near ready to forgive the other boy for hurting Rose, Scorpius mirrored her evil grin. "We can only hope."

**The End**


End file.
